Media Round Up: Moss and History
Aug. 18th, 2023 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryHere's some thoughts on media I've read or watched recently:
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer—I loved Braiding Sweetgrass so I was excited to learn that the author had an earlier book about moss. This was really lovely! Kimmerer’s prose is gorgeous. I enjoyed learning a bit about moss life cycles and I really liked the descriptions doing "muddy boots biology"
The Long Ballad (长歌行) episodes 17-35 — I got really into this and started watching ahead of my group watch. The show is very loosely based on early Tang dynasty history, and many of the characters are inspired by read historical figures. But they main character is not based on anyone. There are adventures and found family and mentorship, and the main romance is very cute. I love basically all the characters! There's lots of schemes and tactics and I'm finding it very fun. The show is also really nationalist and racist in its portrayal of central Asians. There's a lot of downplaying the harshness of the Tang imperialism while playing up the violent stereotypes about central Asian nomads. Despite this I've gotten very sucked in and have been watching multiple episodes a day
Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE by Shao-Yun Yang—Since I've gotten so into The Long Ballad I wanted to know more about the time period in which it's set. This part of the Cambridge Elements series which are novella length non fiction written for a broad audience. It's about 80 pages 20 of which are notes and biography. It's a bit more names and dates focused than I generally like my history, but it was very helpful in getting an overview of of the major players. Several characters from The Long Ballad are in here
A Spoonful of Time by Flora Ahn—This is a super charming middle grade book about Maya, a Koren American girl and her grandmother who time travel together so Maya can learn more about her family. The time travel is food based and the book includes recipes. I also really liked that Maya was excited to learn more about her family! In a lot of books I've read about kids learning family history they start out reluctant so this was a nice change. Content note: dementia, parental death
The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf—This is a middle grade book set in Malaysia, featuring a girl and a ghost. This was darker than I was expecting, and I wasn’t really prepared to deal with it. But I thought it was a good book!
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold—For my Vorkosigan read a long group. I failed at reading the last two books due to travel and illness. I still find this story very meaningful, but now I read about these people not having even eclectic power while there government is fielding space navies and it makes me angry. Invest in your own people for goodness sake!
铜钱龛世 Copper Coins by Mu Su Li—This is a long fan translated danmei web novel that a friend helpfully compiled into an ebook and shared with me. I thought that the magic was very cool! One of the main characters is a dragon! I didn’t love the romance because I wanted the main characters to be nicer to each other
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer—I loved Braiding Sweetgrass so I was excited to learn that the author had an earlier book about moss. This was really lovely! Kimmerer’s prose is gorgeous. I enjoyed learning a bit about moss life cycles and I really liked the descriptions doing "muddy boots biology"
The Long Ballad (长歌行) episodes 17-35 — I got really into this and started watching ahead of my group watch. The show is very loosely based on early Tang dynasty history, and many of the characters are inspired by read historical figures. But they main character is not based on anyone. There are adventures and found family and mentorship, and the main romance is very cute. I love basically all the characters! There's lots of schemes and tactics and I'm finding it very fun. The show is also really nationalist and racist in its portrayal of central Asians. There's a lot of downplaying the harshness of the Tang imperialism while playing up the violent stereotypes about central Asian nomads. Despite this I've gotten very sucked in and have been watching multiple episodes a day
Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE by Shao-Yun Yang—Since I've gotten so into The Long Ballad I wanted to know more about the time period in which it's set. This part of the Cambridge Elements series which are novella length non fiction written for a broad audience. It's about 80 pages 20 of which are notes and biography. It's a bit more names and dates focused than I generally like my history, but it was very helpful in getting an overview of of the major players. Several characters from The Long Ballad are in here
A Spoonful of Time by Flora Ahn—This is a super charming middle grade book about Maya, a Koren American girl and her grandmother who time travel together so Maya can learn more about her family. The time travel is food based and the book includes recipes. I also really liked that Maya was excited to learn more about her family! In a lot of books I've read about kids learning family history they start out reluctant so this was a nice change. Content note: dementia, parental death
The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf—This is a middle grade book set in Malaysia, featuring a girl and a ghost. This was darker than I was expecting, and I wasn’t really prepared to deal with it. But I thought it was a good book!
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold—For my Vorkosigan read a long group. I failed at reading the last two books due to travel and illness. I still find this story very meaningful, but now I read about these people not having even eclectic power while there government is fielding space navies and it makes me angry. Invest in your own people for goodness sake!
铜钱龛世 Copper Coins by Mu Su Li—This is a long fan translated danmei web novel that a friend helpfully compiled into an ebook and shared with me. I thought that the magic was very cool! One of the main characters is a dragon! I didn’t love the romance because I wanted the main characters to be nicer to each other
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Date: 2023-08-21 07:45 am (UTC)