Media Round Up: Strong Women
Jul. 22nd, 2025 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryI thought I would have gotten father with my pile of graphic novels form the library by now since I think of them as such quick reads, but I guess I've been reading other things.
Women of the Conquest Dynasties: Gender and Identity in Liao and Jin China by Linda Cooke Johnson —Read for my FTH bibliography. This didn’t have a huge amount about textiles but it did have a lot about interesting and badass women.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite —A murder mystery novella set on a space ship. Very much in the style of classic murder mysteries, complete with an older woman detective. There's a bunch of interesting memory based tech in here including something like a replicator that works off memories which is a cool idea but replicating the thing you remember exactly how you remember it doesn’t seem like it would work out for most people. Fabric is mentioned as something that’s easy to replicate, but I don’t remember even fabric I’ve sewn with that precisely. Most of my memories are just not very precise – I would just end up with a lot of blobs if I tried this.
This kind of mystery really depends on the quirky cast, and I liked the characters but felt like we didn’t really get to know them, I think it would have benefited from being longer so the characters could be a bit more developed.
This makes it seem like I didn’t like the book, but actually it's very charming. I especially liked the the main character is a knitter and there are lots of yarn details.
Hovergirls by Geneva Bowers —One of those graphic novels I mentioned checking out from the library. Cousins Jalissa and Kim have recently moved to a new city and have to deal with challenges like working at a coffee shop and fighting mysterious glowing fish. This was fun! I really liked the art style, which was very bright and colorful.
The Moth Keeper by Kay O'Neill —Another graphic novel by the author of The Tea Dragon Society books. This one is actually written before A Song for You & I and it’s not quite as good as that one, there’s few places where it's hard to follow the action. I did really like all the night time desert landscapes, and the moths though!
Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors — My tutor mentioned liking this documentary, and a friend asked me to beta a fic that has a documentary in it so it seemed like a good thing to check out. It was interesting! Maybe more focused on the political story than the craftwork than I would have preferred, but I enjoyed it. There’s bunch of reenactments of historical events and it was weird to see sets I recognized from dramas in that context! I really enjoyed getting to see the evacuations and the terracotta warriors up close though.
(content notes: human remains, evidence of violent death, cohersed suicide)
My Uncanny Destiny eps 1-3 —This came highly recced by a fedi pal (which is why I watched more than one episode) but unfortunately I don’t get on with it at all. I think it's supposed to be funny but it just feels very mean. Lots of people suffering while the show goes wink, wink, ha ha.
This is crossdressing girl media of the was raised as boy form birth variety which I like less than the girl chose to dress as boy to accomplish things variety. The FL gets hit on the head and gets amnesia right at the start and therefore dresses in women’s clothing anyways. Her body language while presenting as female is very masculine which is something the person who recced the show really liked. And that is nice, but its not enough to carry me through the mean spiritedness.
(content note: death in child birth)
Women of the Conquest Dynasties: Gender and Identity in Liao and Jin China by Linda Cooke Johnson —Read for my FTH bibliography. This didn’t have a huge amount about textiles but it did have a lot about interesting and badass women.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite —A murder mystery novella set on a space ship. Very much in the style of classic murder mysteries, complete with an older woman detective. There's a bunch of interesting memory based tech in here including something like a replicator that works off memories which is a cool idea but replicating the thing you remember exactly how you remember it doesn’t seem like it would work out for most people. Fabric is mentioned as something that’s easy to replicate, but I don’t remember even fabric I’ve sewn with that precisely. Most of my memories are just not very precise – I would just end up with a lot of blobs if I tried this.
This kind of mystery really depends on the quirky cast, and I liked the characters but felt like we didn’t really get to know them, I think it would have benefited from being longer so the characters could be a bit more developed.
This makes it seem like I didn’t like the book, but actually it's very charming. I especially liked the the main character is a knitter and there are lots of yarn details.
Hovergirls by Geneva Bowers —One of those graphic novels I mentioned checking out from the library. Cousins Jalissa and Kim have recently moved to a new city and have to deal with challenges like working at a coffee shop and fighting mysterious glowing fish. This was fun! I really liked the art style, which was very bright and colorful.
The Moth Keeper by Kay O'Neill —Another graphic novel by the author of The Tea Dragon Society books. This one is actually written before A Song for You & I and it’s not quite as good as that one, there’s few places where it's hard to follow the action. I did really like all the night time desert landscapes, and the moths though!
Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors — My tutor mentioned liking this documentary, and a friend asked me to beta a fic that has a documentary in it so it seemed like a good thing to check out. It was interesting! Maybe more focused on the political story than the craftwork than I would have preferred, but I enjoyed it. There’s bunch of reenactments of historical events and it was weird to see sets I recognized from dramas in that context! I really enjoyed getting to see the evacuations and the terracotta warriors up close though.
(content notes: human remains, evidence of violent death, cohersed suicide)
My Uncanny Destiny eps 1-3 —This came highly recced by a fedi pal (which is why I watched more than one episode) but unfortunately I don’t get on with it at all. I think it's supposed to be funny but it just feels very mean. Lots of people suffering while the show goes wink, wink, ha ha.
This is crossdressing girl media of the was raised as boy form birth variety which I like less than the girl chose to dress as boy to accomplish things variety. The FL gets hit on the head and gets amnesia right at the start and therefore dresses in women’s clothing anyways. Her body language while presenting as female is very masculine which is something the person who recced the show really liked. And that is nice, but its not enough to carry me through the mean spiritedness.
(content note: death in child birth)
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Date: 2025-07-24 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 03:48 pm (UTC)