Sunday Post #146

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Another week and a good one for the most part. The week kinda flew by and I've been reading a bit- most of my shows are either wrapping up or getting ready to start again, so I haven't been on Netflix. It's been cool too, still sunny but the temps have been in the 70's- nice. I reviewed Gena/ Finn this week and had mixed thoughts on that one, and I also discussed Game of Thrones (show vs books). I also came up with a short list of bookstores I'd like to hit for my long dormant Bookstore Spotlights- I've been wanting to get back to those for a while but time hasn't cooperated. 

Maybe this summer I can get a few of those in. I'll also be renewing my readthrough of A Dance with Dragons on Wednesdays- I'm in the home stretch on that one. And I'll have show recaps of some of the stuff I'm watching as well. 

Trust Issues Part Three is done and ready to go. I'll be posting it this Tuesday- I hope you get a chance to stop by and let me know what you think. 

And I'm listening to...



PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

 
  
NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

BOOKISH LINKS  

This is kinda fun. 

Bookcover Spotlight #52

I like this cover even though it's fairly simple, but maybe that's what I like. Gelato sounds great but there's a place that has this awesome sorbetto- I could eat that all day. That's what this cover reminds me of- plus I've heard this one is good.

Gena /Finn

Gena/ Finn is a book I was looking forward to due to the premise- two women and their shared love of fandom- but I came away with mixed feelings on this one. It's fast paced and told through blog posts, texts and email and examines mental health themes as well as what it means to be an adult in today's world. Their lives are pretty different other than their shared interest in a certain show. Gena writes fan fic and Finn runs a blog and this reminded me of Fangirl a bit due to the two male characters who are the focus of the fandom. Gena and Finn become best friends very quickly and this causes problems in Finn's relationship with her boyfriend.

I liked this book a lot for about the first half or so, I found it funny and true to life. The problem I had was the second half- the story changes dramatically and turns a bit darker and I lost the connection to the characters. I was into both and the sudden switching of gears just changed the tone- it was abrupt and I just wasn't feeling what I think the authors are going for. That may be just me though, I just didn't like the direction it took towards the end.

 Again this book is funny at times and the chat/ messaging elements felt authentic, it's a great exploration of what makes fandoms so real. For me personally the later part of the story didn't work but I still think this is a good read.

Wednesday Round Up #2

2020! This episode, Lullaby, starts on a heartbreaking note as we see Jones singing to her dead daughter, who has apparently just flatlined. It's very eerie in a quarantine facility and the lullaby is playing in the background. And then Cassie shows up- to shoot Jones! This episode explores the theme of children- missing- as we then see Ramse and are reminded that his son, too , is missing. Jones, predictably, blames herself for everything and sees the solution as sending Cassie back to 2020- to kill  her! If she's dead them time travel is never invented and nothing comes to pass, all the chaos is erased.

"You don't get to decide it's over just because you've given up hope," Cole tells her. And so Cole goes back to stop her- and in true 12 Monkeys fashion, it gets trippy. Cassie actually does shoot Jones but then everything starts over- only this time they discover Jennifer is there as well. She's a riot as always- like the secret weapon on this show.

"So welcome to 2020. That number usually represents perfect vision, but it looks like you two aren't seeing too clearly. Heard you were a busy girl. Voices say you blew poor old Jonesy away, and then they say you didn't."

So yeah time reset after Cassie shot Jones- but Jennifer's the only one who sense it. And then everything goes to shit- and poor Jones has to get shot twice!

"Maybe time won't let you kill Jones," Jennifer tells Cole. Hmm, maybe not.

And... Cole finally told Cassie how he feels about her.

This episode was fun, as they always are. One of the best shows on.



Episode eight, The Redesign of Natural Objects, deals with Alison's dilemma- does she give up Sarah's location to save Donnie's life? Donnie is in prison after being arrested last week, and Duko is putting the squeeze on Alison to get at Sarah. And Siobhan wants to kill Duko as revenge for Kendall. It's a pretty effective episode, a little on the dark side, and we get some forward movement as Cosima heads to the island to work with Susan Duncan and, gulp, Rachel. That should be interesting. And what's up with the swan visions that Rachel is having? What's exactly going on with that new eye of hers?

The clone club manages to get the best of Duko and they free Donnie- and Siobhan gets her revenge. Good bye bad detective. Glad to see him gone, frankly.

Game of Thrones- Show vs. Books

There's always been a bit of tension between Game of Thrones and the books the show is based on. George R.R. Martin is not, by his own admission, a fast writer, and as the HBO production overtakes his story there has been a lot written about how the two stories may diverge. And diverge they are- Martin has recently released a sample chapter about characters that are not even on the show, and is on record as saying that his story will be substantially different.

The thing that really got me thinking was the news that seasons seven and eight of the show will be shorter than the usual ten episodes. This has many people wondering how the producers are going to wrap up with so many story elements still needing to play out? The implication is that HBO will cut Martin's story even more, to fit it all in to two shorter seasons. The other thing that came to mind is the reading Martin did at Balticon over Memorial day weekend- it was an Aeron Damphair chapter but was all about Euron Greyjoy, who has just been introduced on the show. Euron is apparently going to be a big deal in the endgame of this series, judging from the reading- you can find a transcript here- and this again begs the question. How much of this story are they going to cut?

In addition to upping Euron's profile considerably, the reading also gives new life to a rather bizarre fan theory- the eldritch apocalypse theory- which basically states that Euron is going to turn the upcoming naval battle with the Redwyne fleet into a mass blood sacrifice- giving up both his men and his enemies'- in order to achieve some great power. You can read all about the theory here and it's very compelling. I actually kind of like it and hope it happens more or less the way the author describes- but what a gamechanger it will be, if true! And I can't see the show producers going that way- I mean there's only a few episodes left in this season and then two more shortened seasons- how is that going to work?

But then again if Poor Quentyn's theory is right how will HBO handle that? Will they have to include the Euron storyline in some form? Given that they have just introduced Euron on the show, they must be planning on doing something with his arc- so time will tell. And it's of course very possible that the eldritch apocalypse theory is wrong.

Even if this isn't an issue there still seems to be a lot of story to tell yet- presumably the Wall has to come down, Daenerys has to arrive in Westeros with her army, Jon has to deal with the Boltons- but the show has been on the move. They're ahead of the books now- the Three eyed Crow is dead, Arya has spurned the Faceless Men, the Vale has entered the war- Martin has not gotten to any of this yet, and while he probably will in the next book, we know that his take is going to be slower moving. So if HBO is speeding things up with the endgame in sight, every episode from here on out could be potentially huge. Who knows what we'll see? And with episode ten "The Winds of Winter", I wonder if we'll see the Wall come down at the end of this season?

You can read more about the Balticon reading and my general thoughts on that in my post from last week.

Poor Quentyn has a lot of great info and you can find the eldritch apocalypse theory there.

For more information on Euron and what may happen (it supports the eldritch apocalypse theory nicely) check out this reddit forum. VERY interesting.

And of course if you don't want spoilers, don't go ANYWHERE near these sites!

Game of Thrones The Broken Man

This episode was a mixed bag for me. The centerpiece of the story is obviously the return of Sandor Clegane- after a long absence we get confirmation that he's alive- and I think it's done effectively even though it differs from the book situation. Sandor is a changed man now, he's with a group of faithful and is leaving his old life behind- but as with so many in this world, he soon finds that there is no leaving it behind. You may try and walk away, but the past sometimes comes back whether you like it or not. This post will contain spoilers for this episode.

Two important thing happen tonight. The first is the return of Sandor, and the second is the mixed success of the Jon/ Sansa alliance. Jon rallies the wildlings to his side, with help from Tormund and the giant Wun Wun, but rallying the northern houses turns out to be more difficult. He and Sansa are able to win Lyanna Mormont's support (the ten year old who runs house Mormont now- and by the way, was she awesome or what) but they have less success with the Glovers. I thought the Mormont scenes were well done except that Jon and Sansa seemed tongue-tied, unable to make their case to a ten year old girl. It fell to Davos to save the day and speak up for them. If this is the best the Starks can do, maybe they are in trouble.

It's kind of sad how they're handling this, as the show diverges more and more from the books. Here Lord Glover rejects the Stark appeal, whereas in the books Galbart Glover is working with Lord Manderly to at least ostensibly return the Starks to power. It's particularly irritating to me because house Glover seems so loyal to the Starks in the books, it's hard to see them portrayed here in this way. And Sansa needs to step up if she wants to be the Stark - but obviously this is all being done so she has to turn to Littlefinger and his Vale knights, as she does in her last scene.

Some other stuff happened. Margaery is a crafty one, having seemingly pulled the wool over the High Sparrow's eyes. She seems sincere and devout until we see her slip a note to the Queen of Thorns, and thus we know she's still the Margaery we know. How this will turn out remains to be seen, but Olenna is heading back to Highgarden as soon as she can. I think Margaery is trying to protect her after the Sparrow obliquely threatened Olenna's life. Olenna wasn't shy about telling Cersei what she thought either- she's the only one who does that.

Jaime is in the riverlands- do people travel fast on this show or what? I mean seriously, not only this but Theon and Yara are in Volantis already, and Jon and Sansa are al over the north. It's ridiculous really but whatever. Jaime puts the Freys in their place and parleys with the Blackfish- who pretty much gets the better of him. It's somewhat similar to how it plays out in the books, but show Jaime (as always) comes off so much worse. His character is pretty much destroyed on the show. His story arc in A Storm of Swords especially is so rich, so nuanced, that show watchers who haven't read the books are really missing out on Jaime's character. At least in my opinion.

 I did like how the Blackfish asked Jaime where Arya and Sansa were, and since he didn't have them did he want to resume his imprisonment? This is a clear call out to the fact that he swore an oath to recover them, and not to raise his hands against the Starks again- did he make that oath on the show?- and I liked how they handled the scene where Jaime rebuked the Freys after the Blackfish called their bluff re: Edmure. That was done well.

Lastly I want to talk a bit about Yara and Arya. Boy that's weird seeing those names so close together (Yara is of course Asha in the books, but you know- HBO). As mentioned previously, the Greyjoy siblings are in Volantis and Yara is getting a little F/F action. "Nothing on the Iron Islands has an ass like that" she tells Theon. And Arya- she's going home! She's apparently getting her last look around Braavos and of course the Waif gets the drop on her- oh oh it doesn't look good. Arya is bleeding out... what happens next?  

And so back to Sandor. His attempt at peace is shattered when the faithful he's been hanging with are all killed while he's off chopping wood or whatever- and so we have a vengeful Sandor back in the game.

Cover Characteristics Lipstick

Cover Characteristics is a meme by Sugar and Snark- every week a characteristic is selected and we post 5 books with that week's theme.  

This week's pick- Lipstick   

This seems like a good topic at first blush but how many covers are there really with lipstick? As opposed to say lips. So I took a little creative license and looked for covers with lips that,uh, have lipstick on. Or whatever. So here's what I came up with... 





  

This may be my favorite right off the bat... or was until I found a few others. 

  


  

  

 
 



 



 

 
 

  

Probably my favorite- why do I think she's drinking blood? 



I just needed an excuse to use this one as I like it.