Bits and Bobs

[forestofglory]

*My kid brought home a stomach bug and we were all sick over the weekend. I'm still not feeling fully recovered.

* A lot of people I know are into found family in SFF. And I like it too but it struck me today that a lot of SFF media is bad at family of origin. Like there's my whole thing about moms. But also SFF is not great at siblings, or cousins or aunts and doesn't do a lot of large complex families.

*kinda relatedly I think the reason I'm so interested in fiction about mentorship is that I really want to be someone's mentor someday. Too bad that I'm not really an expert at anything and am thus not sure what I could mentor someone in.

*I really hate it when I have hold on something at library and the person who has checked out the book doesn't return it on time. Please, other person who I've never met I want my turn to read the books.

Comments

[ambyr]

Coincidentally, I just finished reading a book that's all about the protagonist's relationship with his mother's siblings--which was, as you say, an unusual stand-out for this choice.

[forestofglory]

Oh what book? That sounds intriguing.

[ambyr]

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, a rather gory and gritty take on werewolves featuring a poor Native American family whose perambulations across the SE US seem to be rather heavily autobiographical (except, I hope, the werewolf parts).

[forestofglory]

Hmm.. wait you mentioned this in your last book post and it sounded too dark. Drat because otherwise it sounds really good.

[ambyr]

It is really good, but yeah, I cannot recommend it to anyone who does not want dark. (If specific spoilers would help you decide I can give them, but honestly if there is a fucked-up thing you think can happen in a book, odds are better than even that it's there.)

[lizbee]

And I like it too but it struck me today that a lot of SFF media is bad at family of origin.

Yes! And this makes me so sad, because my jam is mingling found family with a family of origin (and also, relatedly, awkward dinner parties).

[forestofglory]

That sounds really good. Though if the dinner parties get too awkward they trigger my embarrassment squick -- the last few times I'v read A Civil Campaign I had to skip the dinner party scene.