David Bowie
Credit: Ralph Gatti/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images
Like most of the internet, I woke up this morning to the news that David Bowie had passed away.
I have really strong feelings about this and i”m not sure how to articulate them.
David Bowie was probably the first three dimensional man I had a crush on. I’d had crushes on fictional characters already, Peter from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Almanzo from Farmer Boy, but David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King was a revelation. I watched Labyrinth twelve times in one weekend and that had a great deal to do with my personal aesthetic.
Ziggie Stardust
the Goblin King
The Hunger
Tin Machine
Diamond Dogs
I could keep going, but we all know who David Bowie is and what he put into the world.
When I was nine I watched Labyrinth and decided that I, a different Sara, would do it all better than Jennifer Connoly’s Sarah. I was goign to find my way into the Labyrinth someday and dance all night with the Goblin King.
I’m still not sure that someday I won’t.
House Read: Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
What I’m Reading: Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenburg
Published: Penguin Press, 2015
Read This: while filling out a profile for an online dating service.
Well, I finally finished Modern Romance. This took a while because I was listening to it on audio and I got distracted listening to podcasts (mostly author interviews with Cherie Priest, Ursula Vernon, or Seanan McGuire) and so my audio time was taken up with that.
On the whole, the book was interesting, but I would definitely recommend getting the print edition rather than the audio. For one thing, the print edition has (apparently) charts and graphs that you can’t see with the audio edition. For another, Ansari, who voices the audiobook, frequently abuses the listener for being too lazy to read the book themselves. It’s kind of funny the first time, but not really. There are plenty of reasons someone might need to or simply prefer to listen to an audiobook and there’s no need to mock that even if you are a comedian.
The information in the book is presented fairly well, but I don’t know that much of it is revelatory. People are waiting longer to get married, taking longer to settle down in general, and the online dating networks have given us more choices, but also made it harder to make a decision. Ok. Cool.
I’m not sure that my life has been changed by this book, but it was interesting. If I were more of a sociologist or a cultural anthropologist it probably would have been very illuminating, but I like archaeology and books, so it wasn’t right in my wheelhouse.
The Dryad’s Shoe by T. Kingfisher
Hello Internet! I’ve caught a nasty cold, so I’m going to keep it brief today in favor of retreating to bed with more tea.
Art by Tara Larsen Chang
I was poking about, reading lovely stories at Fantasy Magazine’s site and I found “The Dryad’s Shoe” by T. Kingfisher, which is utterly delightful. It is another of her fairy tale retellings. This one imagines a Cinderella (named Hannah, which is a much more sensible name) is has no interest in magic dresses and Dukes’ sons. She simply wants to be left alone to get on with the gardening.
Also, if the story wasn’t enough (which, it is) there is the amazing illustration done by Tara Larsen Chang. It’s so beautiful!
The Serialist by David Gordon
https://vine.co/v/ihHj2FAQMXq/embed/simpleDavid Gordon’s The Serialist is about Harry Bloch, the hardest working underpaid writer in town. He turns out everything from cozy mysteries to sexy vampire novels under a variety of pseudonyms, but while they pay the rent they aren’t doing much for his self image or his mental state. So, when he gets the opportunity to ghost write a serial killer’s autobiography, he takes it.
This is a mistake.
Despite the fact that Darian Clay, the Photo Killer, is locked up, young women are getting murdered in his signature style. And Harry is caught right in the middle of it all.
I read this book years ago when it came out, but when my co-writer and I were looking for books to use for our #6secondbookreview series, we both remembered this one as a fantastic read. Gordon manages to keep a strong thread of humor as the story takes increasingly bizarre twists and turns from Bloch having to impersonate his mother for author photos to visiting some of the women who have written love letters to Clay who is on Death Row.
But, don’t let the humor fool you, this book tackles some dark, twisted corners of the human psyche. It just makes you laugh while it does it.
Around the World by Matt Phelan
What Am I Reading: Around the World by Matt Phelan
Published: Candlewick, 2011
Illustrations: Matt Phelan
Read This: While traveling, preferably circumnavigating the globe.
I actually picked this book out from the library at school yesterday. I had a little time to wait while a class finished up a lesson, so I started to flip through this charming graphic novel.
Upon first opening the book, it’s easy to see why Phelan won the 2012 Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Work. The illustrations are lovely. They feel delicate while conveying everything that they need to.
The book itself is divided into three narratives, each based on one person who made an unusual circumnavigation of the globe.
The first story is that of Thomas Stevens, who was a miner left the mines to ride a bicycle around the world in 1884. He rode a big-wheel bicycle, which were notoriously unstable, but managed his trek across the globe in just under three years. He wrote a book, Around the World On a Bicycle, detailing his trip.
Phelan frames the story as that of a man who wants more out of life than to live and die down a mineshaft. The story is at times funny and always very sweet and kind to its subject.
The second section covers the exciting race against time undertaken by the famous female reporter, Nellie Bly. Nellie set out to race against the famous story by Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days. She determined to do it in less time. And she did, setting the record at just over seventy-two days with nothing but one carpet bag as luggage.
Nellie’s journey was a sensation and catapulted her paper into massive circulation. Bly herself received little more than a pat on the back when she returned, but wrote a bestselling book about her adventure. 
The last person in the book is Joshua Slocum who circumnavigated the globe on a small sailboat named the Spray. He was the first person to single-handedly sail around the globe. Slocum was over fifty when he set out on his adventure, but was a very experienced sea captain. He chose to use dead reckoning for his journey and carried very few navigational tools beyond a cheap tin clock. Phelan speculates a bit about his motivations, but links much of Slocum’s desire to be alone to the death of his first wife, Virginia. Her ghost is present in several of the panels. Although, there is also an incident where Slocum is poisoned by some cheese and hallucinates the ghost of Christopher Columbus steering his ship safely through a storm.
Slocum took the Spray out on a final trip in 1909 and was never seen again.
The book is a lovely chronicle of three unusual people who did extraordinary things. As I said before, the art is beautiful and it’s a very quick read overall. If you’ve got a little time, I highly recommend picking it up.
Reading Challenges:
PopSugar Challenge 2/40
House Reads 1/50
Delia’s Shadow by Jamie Lee Moyer
It was a busy day today, but have a 6 second book review of one of my favorite ghost stories:
Webcomics
Yesterday, I reviewed I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest and since that is a book that deals heavily with webcomics I thought today it might be fun to mention a few of the webcomics that I read or have read in the past.
Now, I’ll be honest, I’m pretty bad at keeping up with ongoing comics both on the web and in single issues. I’ve got a digital subscription to several comics so that the books can get that important on-sale-date sales, but I usually end up waiting to read anything until I can get it in trade paperback. I want to support the books I love, but I just don’t really like reading in such short installments.
Webcomics are very similar to me. I’ll binge-read months if not years of the comic at a time, but I’m terrible about remembering to check them daily. And in some cases (Digger) I actually just wait until a book has been published and read the whole thing that way.
Digger by Ursula Vernon
I’ve already done a review of Digger, so I’ll be very brief. Digger is the story of an anthropomorphic wombat who, through no fault of her own, ends up on an adventure involving gods, demons, and even more anthropomorphic hyenas. The whole thing, which is an 823 page book, is still available for free online.
Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell
Much like Digger, Gunnerkrigg Court is available on the web 
for free, but it has also been collected into books if you’re not comfortable reading online for long periods or if you just want to support the creator by making a purchase.
Antimony is a very smart, very self-possessed young girl who has started her first year at Gunnerkrigg Court, a boarding school in the best British tradition. The school is something like a technological Hogwarts. Robots and alchemy and forest spirits all conspire to make Antimony’s school years a bit more exciting than planned.
A Girl and Her Fed by K.B. Spangler
A Girl and Her Fed is about a young reporter who discovers that she’s being watched by the government. Except… it’s a little more complicated than that. the Fed has a chip in his head that gives him access to any computer information ever. Unfortunately, the UI is a tiny cartoon of George W. Bush. The Girl either talks to the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, or she talks to a persistent LSD flashback that looks like the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. Also, together they discover a massive, scary conspiracy that they and their respective presidents have to deal with.
K.B. is redoing the comics from their original low-res, black & white state to the shiny new hi-res color, but if you read straight through you might run into the archive gap. The comic has not been collected and bound, but there are novels set in the same universe if you like it and want more.
Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
QC is a comic about an extended group of friends living in Northampton, MA in the near future. The major difference is that AI are a thing and people’s computers are tiny adorable robots. Well… mostly adorable. The main character is pretty typical of the disaffected post-graduate wannabe musician. But his extended group of friends get pretty cool. Much like with many webcomics, the early strips are pretty rough. The art gets much, much, much better as it goes along. 
Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew
Esentially, a D&D campaign told in stick figures. It sounds weird and it is, but it is also awesome.
Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler
Schlock Mercenary is a very long ongoing comic written and drawn by Howard Tayler. It focuses on a group of mercenaries in a distant post-scarcity future. They mostly blow stuff up. It is predominantly a humor comic, but ever now and then Howard will break you just a little. 
XKCD by Randall Munroe
XKCD is the other famous stick figure comic on my list. It’s… a little bit about everything and the one about the Mars rover will make you cry if you have any soul left.
Although, mostly it’s about science. But also sometimes history. And occasionally people being wrong on the internet.
The Oatmeal by Matthew Inman
They’re… kind of ugly drawings that are really funny? I’m not sure how to explain The Oatmeal, but you’ve probably seen it before. Also, his cat book his hilarious and the comic about the dog is really sad. Why? Why must you all make such things that are so true and yet so sad? But also funny?
Oh! and he has a game called Exploding Kittens. So, there’s that.
Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik
This is a comic about gaming. Mostly. Sometimes there are much longer story arcs and some of them are truly awesome. Automata is my favorite.
Usually, the jokes center around either things that happen in a video game or within the greater gaming culture. As the creators have moved more into games I don’t play I haven’t read it as much, but there are some good strips.
The Devil’s Panties by Jennie Breeden
This is a semi-autobiographical comic/journal that happens based around Jennie’s life. So, there are lots of things about being an artist, going out, staying in, and being all kinds of nifty. The whole run is free online, but also as a set of shiny graphic novels!
Jennie is also famous at DragonCon for her annual Kilt Blowing extravaganza. (Yes, it’s pretty much what it sounds like; Men + Kilts + leaf blower = an awesome night for the rest of us!)
House Read: I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
What I’m Reading: I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
Published: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015
Cover Art & Illustrations: Kali Ciesemier
Read This: While solving mysteries and drinking hot chocolate.
I Am Princess X is two different things at the same time. The first part is the story of May, a girl who splits her time between her Dad’s in Seattle and her Mom’s in Atlanta.
When her parents first moved to Seattle, when they were still together and everything seemed ok, May had one friend. Her name was Libby and she was amazing. Together, the girls created Princess X, a ballgown wearing, katana wielding, blue-haired heroine. Libby drew the pictures and May wrote the stories. It was a perfect partnership.
Until Libby died in a car accident. Princess X was lost. Her creators were torn apart and all the notebooks of her adventures were carelessly discarded by a grieving father. May’s life was left bereft and slightly aimless until three years later when she sees a sticker in the window of an abandoned store. People put stickers all over the place, but this one is of Princess X. The sticker leads her to a webcomic, IAmPrincessX.com.
May becomes convinced that Libby is still alive and is reaching out to her. She finds help from a computer hacker who lives upstairs and together they find that the webcomic is just the beginning. Libby’s disappearance was much more ominous than anyone told May at the time. There is someone trying to keep May from solving the mystery of Princess X, but she’s willing to face anything for the chance of finding Libby again.
I Am Princess X is the first book I’ve finished this year. I was actually supposed to be reading The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. I did a twitter poll and everything! But, I needed something I could take with me yesterday and so I grabbed a smaller book that would actually fit into my purse. So, I started I Am Princess X in the afternoon and then I stayed up far too late finishing the book off. Which, makes it the first book I have finished this year! Woo!
So, this book is pretty awesome. Cherie’s story is blended with illustrations by Kali Ciesemier. At the beginning of the book, the illustrations match Libby’s chalk drawings and then they evolve into panels from the webcomic. The illustrations are all done in purple and grey and they’re very haunting.
May strikes me as a very believable character and the mystery is tense and gripping. The whole thing is set in Seattle, which lends itself well to the sort of magical realism that going on a quest at the behest of a princess in a webcomic would require.
The story does get fairly dark, so I would probably recommend it for an audience of 12 and up. I am significantly older than 12 and I loved it, so I don’t think there’s an upper limit to Princess X’s audience.
Cherie has mentioned that this was a project that Scholastic approached her to work on, so it isn’t likely that there will be a sequel, but she may have a new YA novel out sometime in the future. I look forward to seeing it and, really, anything else she puts out.
Kali Ciesemier has a wonderful website where you can get prints of her work. I will have to look at that once my wallet recovers a bit from the holidays.
Hamster Princess Giveaway
I have rhapsodized about Ursula Vernon’s new series, Hamster Princess before. The first book, Harriet the Invincible, came out in August from Dial Books.
Harriet’s story starts off like the classic Sleeping Beauty tale.
Christening? Check!
Good fairies? Check!
Evil fairy? Check!
Curse? Check!
But then, things get interesting. Harriet is not a frail, retiring sort of princess the way her mother wishes she was. So, when she finds out she’s under a curse, instead of swooning or going into a decline, Harriet decides to take up jousting and cliff-diving. After all, the curse needs her alive to work, right?
This story is fantastic for anyone who loves adventure tales, kick-butt female protagonists, and slightly fractured fairy tales. Also, battle quail.
Now, as it happens, I have a signed copy to give away this month. To enter, just leave a comment telling me what your favorite fairy tale is. Then follow THIS LINK
over to the Rafflecopter giveaway site and enter!
You can earn extra entries by following me or Ursula on Twitter, posting about the giveaway on Twitter, or following Ursula on Tumblr.
The winner will be contacted via email on January 28.
Good luck!
The Once & Future Podcast
How is 2016 going for everyone so far?
I worked a quiet day at the bookstore and then went to see Star Wars again. It was still made of awesome. This time I managed to see R2-KT in her cameo. If you don’t know the story of this adorable droid, I recommend you go look at her homepage (warning, there are some stills from The Force Awakens at the site!) The short version is that R2-KT is a pink R2 unit that was created for a little girl with a terminal brain tumor. Her dad was the founder of the 501st Legion, so she had a strong love of Star Wars. She’s gone now, but R2-KT continues in both our world and the world of Star Wars. I was so excited to see her! I missed her on my first viewing.
Now that you’ve teared up, let me change the subject entirely and talk about a podcast I just started listening to. The Once and Future Podcast is hosted by Anton Strout, the author of several urban fantasy novels. Every episode, he gets another author on to just chat for around an hour.
I found this show after looking for more podcasts with Cherie Priest, who gives a fantastic interview. I thought the show was fun, so I decided to subscribe. I’ve listened to five or six episodes so far while I was puttering around the house and I’m really enjoying them.
The episodes vary a bit depending on the direction the guest takes it, but mostly it focuses on writing and how one goes about being a working author.
There is an episode guide here, so if you want to sample the podcast you can look up a favorite author and start from there.
Medusa's Library 