forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
I 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 Uncanny Destiny )
forestofglory: A drawing of a woman wearing white riding a leaping brown horse (The Long Ballad)
Since it's more than halfway through the year I started to write a reflection on my reading goal for the year: "Read Joyfully" But I found I didn't have much to say about it other than it turns out its easier to engage with new to me fiction when I actually get enough sleep.

However I do have some thoughts on things I've read and watched recently to share:

The Truth Season 3cases 9 and 10 — The last two cases, I’m sad that this is over now! This was so, so much fun! The second to last case featured my favorite costumes of the whole show in show with many excellent costumes. This really a fairly frivolous show but I love it so much! (Content note: the final case involved a dead kid)

Mu Guiying Takes Command ep 1-4— I wanted to love this. It is an adaptation of The Generals of the Yang Family, a story dating back to at least the Ming Dynasty that features women in command of the military. The FL is very badass. However I got fed up with how childish both the leads were acting.

Also this was released in 2012 which isn’t really that long ago but it feels like a whole different era.

Medieval Textiles across Eurasia, c. 300–1400 by Patricia Blessing, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Eiren L. Shea— This is a novella length overview of the topic. About 80 pages with a lot of pictures. I liked how it tied together such a big area and a long time period. Zooming out helped me put the stuff I know about (Chinese textiles, mostly Tang dynasty) into a larger context. I read it for the FTH biography I’m creating on Liao textiles.

A Song for You & I by Kay O'Neill— My friend Maureen, who is a children’s librarian, recced this graphic novel by the author of the Tea Dragon Society books in her most recent newsletter. And I’m glad she did because I haven’t been keeping up with recent releases and this was really good. It's a very gentle story that’s kind of coming of age with a lot of travel. One of the characters has a flying horse! The art is really good. I kept stoping to admire the color gradients. Just a very lovely book.

Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliott— Reading a A Song for You & I reminded me that my library has lots of graphic novels and I checked out a whole pile of them including this one. Please Be My Star is a YA romance featuring teens putting on a play. It was very cute though once or twice I got a little too much second hand embarrassment.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born ep 1-4— This kdrama sounded so exactly my thing. It’s got preforming arts, tons of women, and crossdressing girls! It’s also very pretty and well done. So I’m baffled as to why after four episodes all I feel about it is “meh”
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
It's that time again! More thoughts on media:

The Truth Season 3 case 8 (I think, the numbering is confusing now)— this case featured Chinese style horror, and it was very creepy but in a fun way. I also enjoyed the earthly 20th inspired costumes

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming— I’m writing about this even though I didn’t finish it because I think some of you might enjoy this. The first bit was really fun! The main character is a wildlife biology PhD student, who when she finds herself on an alien planet is upset that it's full of dinosaurs all from different time periods from each other! (Very relatable really) The book has a very fun voice. Unfortunately it ends up becoming too much sex for me.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh— A Korean inspired fantasy YA novel about a girl who chooses to sacrifice herself in place of the designated Sea God’s Bride and enters a spirit world full of mythical beings and complex politics. (I read this even though the mom is dead, and really there’s no narrative reason for it) This was lovely and very atmospheric, though the ending left me a little dissatisfied. (Content Note: Infant death)

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen— Second book in the Little Thieves trilogy. Very fun and twisty in a similar way to the 1st book.

Kpop Demon Hunters — It's an animated movie about a kpop girl band that are magical girl-sque demon hunters, there's lot of musical numbers.A Koren friend of mine described it as “an American movie set in Korea” and I think that’s spot on. She specifically complained about how the worldbuiling/theology feels too christian. It doesn't fully work through the consequences of all the violence but the flight scenes are very swooshy and fun, and I liked the themes a lot. I also really liked the female friendship aspect.
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
Here's so thoughts about things I've been reading and watching recently:

The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin— Read out loud to the kid. I loved Grace Lin’s other MG books so I was very excited for this! It was very charming. As always I enjoy the author’s illustrations. I enjoyed having Chinese mythical creatures in a modern city. I don’t love it quite as much as some of the author’s other work, but it was good and worth reading.

The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann Leblanc— I heard about this novella from a WisCon panel on recent trans SFF. It's about a space cheese maker who finds out the asteroid that houses her cheese cave is about to be yeetted into the sun. She is one of many people who is a copy of an original human, including the person she sells her cheese to and the woman she goes to for help. This book was maybe not as weird as it was presented to me, and some of the politics are exactly like current earth queer community debates. Still I loved all the details about food, and the bits of community building that were present around the edges of the story.

The Truth Season 3 cases 6 and 7— This is labeled as two cases but it's really one very long case! I was a little disappointed to have to wait a week for resolution. This case also featured some upsetting queer phobic violence as part of one character’s backstory. But there were a lot of fun things too. They fought zombies with bubble guns!

The Treasured Voice Season 6 ep 1 — I started watching this while I was waiting between episodes of The Truth. It’s a singing reality show featuring people pairing up to sing songs. It’s got Liu Yuning! I’ve only seen the first episode but it seems pretty chill so far though there are some judges who make negative comments.

Maiden Holmes )
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
Here's some thoughts on media I read and watched recently

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen— This YA fantasy novel was really fun! There are lots of heists and disguises. All the moms are terrible but they aren't dead (being Death doesn't count). I really hated all italicized German words (it is not a problem that they were German I just hate it when “foreign” words are italicized, it's both othering and distracting to me as a reader) However this really sucked me in! It’s fast paced and twisty and the worldbuilding feels grounded.

Coffee Prince ep 5-20— I finished this classic of crossdressing girl media. It was cute and fun! I got a great comment on my post about crossdressing girl media about how crossdressing allows women to form friendships with men on more equal footing. This drama really leans into that and the pleasure of being ‘one of the boys” without having to justify oneself.

This did the best job of “The MC thinks he’s gay because he likes the crossdressing FL” that I’ve seen (Though I haven’t seen many) it could be even better but I was pleased with it nonetheless.

(Content note: Blink and you'll miss it miscarriage and fertility issues)

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy— Somehow no one told me that it is a crossdressing story but trans. That is, the main character is a trans girl who starts the book thinking she’s a boy in disguise. Interestingly she "disguises" herself as a girl so that she can go out into the world and become a witch (mostly crossdressing men in media are trying to access "inner" spaces). The author even thanks Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments, so it's very clearly part of that tradition.

What people did tell me about this book is that there are a bunch of meetings, in fact I was expecting more meetings based on how much people talked about them.There are some meetings, but they don’t drag out and are often summarized. But I was not expecting it to be quite as brutal as it was, there was a lot of fighting and some killing, and also quite a bit of phillosy about power and making choices. Definitely a book that gave me a lot to think about.

I don’t often go seek out reviews after I read a book, but this one I really wanted to see what other people said about it. I really liked Roseanna’s review.

The Truth Season 3 cases 4-5— I continue to really enjoy this show! I especially liked the set of costumes that looked part of a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also they have been playing with the format in fun ways with these two cases.
forestofglory: A green pony with a braided mane and tail and tree cutie mark (Lady Business)
I am once again contributing to cozy SFF discourse: Domestic Labor and Community Building Rec List

This list is for all of you who said "I'd like cozy SFF, if it was the thing you talked about"
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
I can't think of an even vaugley clever subtitle for this post so I've just put the date. I read some books with varying levels of joy. Getting slightly better sleep for a bit helped, as did putting less pressure on myself to love everything I read.

Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis—I was very charmed by this book! It’s not a book where I want to think too hard about the worldbuilding, nor is it a book that thinks too hard about its political systems. (There is an empire – it's bad because it wants to control magic and take over all the little kingdoms around it. But we aren’t going to think too hard about how all those monarchies work or about due process) But if you are in a mood to let those things slide and I was, it's a fun read. I liked and wanted to root for the main characters right away, especially the male lead who is a bit princess coded and becomes a librarian by accident. The plot is mostly a kind of tropey romance and I found that very soothing.

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer—This age of sail crossdressing girl book was recced in response to my crossdressing girl media post. Our main character Jack (née Mary) disguises herself as a boy to become a ship's boy on the HMS Dolphin, and has many adventures. This was a little too gritty for me, especially the early part of the book where her family all die, and then she lives on the street. That section featured a lot of the kids dying! Then ship life is rough and they are in battles and things so more people die. There’s also an attempted rape. Anyways this is a solid example of the crossdressing girl trope! (I actually checked the second book out form the library but it involved school bullying and I was finding that way too upsetting)

A Sky Full of Dragons by Tiffany McDaniel—I read this MG fantasy out loud to my kid over many bedtimes. I think it's a bit too whimsical, which is not a thing I thought I would ever complain about. I like whimsy! But so many unexpected things kept happening it was hard to follow the plot at first. Plus it’s just hard to hold narrative tension when absurd things just keep happening.

The Truth Season 3 cases 1-3— I’m so obsessed with this show! It’s a reality show where pretty people wear pretty clothing and play an elaborate game that’s like a cross between and escape room and a murder mystery dinner party. It’s got my fav Liu Yuning and several other people who I'm very fond of. I think the big thing that keeps me coming back is the group chemistry, which is very fun. I can’t really follow the mysteries – I can get the broad strokes, but to really follow you need to get the details. But it's fine because it's not really what I’m here for, and I enjoy the surprise reveals. This season's costumes are great so far!

Paprika—We did watch another Satoshi Kon film for our next movie night! This one is both very trippy and very creepy. I’m not sure I like it. It was good, just really intense. Anyways I’m glad I watched it. I continue to be impressed by Satoshi Kon’s cityscapes (content note: sexual assault, fatphobia)
forestofglory: A drawing of a woman wearing white riding a leaping brown horse (The Long Ballad)
I don't generally post two of these in a week, but I finished the drama I was watching and also read and watched several short things, so I have more than enough to say.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells—I know I wasn’t that enthusiastic about rereading the first Murderbot novella but I still wanted to reread another one so I did. This was pretty fun. I had lower expectations which probably helped, but Murderbot admits more to caring about stuff in this one. But the best part is definitely Murderbot’s relationship with ART! I especially liked the bit where they watch media and talk about how humans portray beings like them.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells—Yet more Murderbot, as I was finding it rather morish. This one doesn’t have ART, and it does have a lot of new characters to keep track of.

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells— Even more Murderbot. This is the last one I have on hand and these four make a nice arc so I stopped after this one. It's hard to pull off this kind of multi part arc where each piece also is a complete story

The Lost Boys, Race to Romance,and In a Class of Her Own )
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
I’m once again sharing my thoughts on my recent media consumption. But first some thoughts about my joyful reading project.

I spent several days making a deliberate effort to not read if I didn’t feel like reading or wasn’t excited by anything I had to read. I don’t think it really helped? I was kind of miserable but in a different way than when I read things because I don’t have anything better to do. (I need no screen low hand impact things to do right before bed) But I guess after I did that I did end up reading some things. So maybe it worked? But I would rather not do it again.

I went back to reading not because I was suddenly super excited but because I had a day where I was too sick to do much at all and ended up reading a long fic all day.Which was nice, maybe not joyful, but nice.

All Systems Red, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire, The Crescent Moon Tearoom, and The Flash Band )
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
Here's some thoughts on what I've been reading and watching lately:

The Yin Yang Master (2021)— My group watch discord server has decided to have monthly movie nights as an activity that is easier for people who struggle to keep up with the dramas we are watching. This was our first movie. I liked it a lot! great visuals, including a bunch of dramatic vistas, cgi monsters (my favorite was the tree yao with petals drifting around her) and fun fights. Plus there are female characters!

A Garden of Marvels: Tales of Wonder from Early Medieval China by Robert Ford Campany—I think it's helpful to read more Chinese stories from this time period to get a better sense of the genre and see how other people do translation. This book is aimed at undergrads so it has less footnotes than To Live as Long as Heaven And Earth which was also translated by Campany. Personally I like the footnotes, so that’s not a plus for me. All of these stories are very short, mostly less than a page when translated, so there’s not a lot of story or character development, definitely something I read for intellectual reasons and not for the stories.

Love of Petals— It took me a couple of episodes to get into this drama, I didn’t like the relationship between the leads at first, but it got better fairly quickly and I’m glad I stuck with it. The FL is a gardener and the ML is a flower yao, and eventually they start a flower nursery with a group of formerly mistreated yao. There are several very beautiful sets with many many flowers. The ending is a bit rushed and confusing, but it's mostly pretty charming. I don’t have Deep Thoughts about this or anything, but it was cute and fun.
(Content note: attempted suicide)

Seawitch by Skye McKenna —The third book in the Hedgewitch series, read out loud to the kid. I think this is my favorite book in the series so far. In this book they go visit the main character’s cousin who lives in a seaside town in Cornwall, and I really liked all the sea mythology. This book also features a boy who wants to be a witch and I enjoyed his storyline.

Somehow I’ve already finished five dramas this year! Which is as many as the most I've watched in a whole year previously. All of these were 24 episodes or less, but still that’s a lot for me.

Reading joyfully continues to be a challenge, and I’m trying not to push it because I don’t think it helps. I’ve been anxious and depressed a lot recently and its just hard to do anything joyfully when one is in that state.
forestofglory: E. H. Shepard drawing of Christopher Robin reading a book to Pooh (Default)
I was lucky that I watched several drama I liked and could finish recently but now I'm having trouble settling on something to watch. I did finish a book though!

Tao Yuanming and Manuscript Culture: The Record of a Dusty Table by Xiaofei Tian —I enjoyed this book about how variant version of Tao Yuanming’s poems might change how we view the poet. The first chapter which focused on how these variants were seen historically was especially good and the rest of the book didn't quite live up to it. I still liked how it added a lot of context that's helpful for understanding the poems. I didn't like some of the arguments about what the poet felt, which just seems overly strong for the evidence. Overall worth reading.

Other than that I have watched and given up after a few episodes several things Read more... )
forestofglory: E. H. Shepard drawing of Christopher Robin with an umbrella and wellies  (rain)
Posting this because I have a lot to say about A Love Story of Oiled Paper Umbrella even though I haven't finished much else. Even though I haven’t read much that I want to write up, I have read a bunch of enjoyable fic, so I’m counting that as joyful reading win!

Keep Running Special Season ep 6-8—This was fun! Zhou Shen showed up for the last three episodes which was nice. I think I will check out some of the older seasons of the this show at some point

The Gown of Harmonies by Francesca Forrest—This is a standalone fantasy novelette about a blind seamstress. I liked it a lot! I liked how central to the story the labor of making a dress was – it can be really hard to center any kind of domestic labor in fiction but this did it beautifully! I thought the romance could have used a bit more development, but it's hard in a short piece like this. Overall this was sweet and charming!

A Love Story of Oiled Paper Umbrella—This short (24 episodes each about 35 minutes long) Chinese drama features demons and demon hunters (Not sure what genre it's considered, since it's got demons but not transcendents) I’ve been stressed so I’ve been watching this about as close to binge watching as I get. It's very more-ish.

Still I think I’m watched this less critically than I normally watch things. There’s bit early on where the main characters torture a demon for information that’s the kind of thing often have trouble suspending my moral disbelief about, but it hasn’t stopped me form watching this. (Maybe because its brief and non graphic? ) I feel a bit guilty about this though.

Also I didn’t think too hard about the plot, which is full of twists and schemes. I didn’t keep track well enough to really say, if they make sense. This is a bit darker than what I usually go for, but it escalates slowly and by then I was invested in the story.

I’m proud of myself for being able to recognize that the costumes in this are inspired by the Tang Dynasty! I also like that this show features women wearing men's clothing but not in disguise as men, a thing that real Tang dynasty women did, but that I haven’t seen in any other dramas. On the other hand several costumes are these one shouldered over robes, and I think those look silly. There's also some weird asymmetric collars I'm not fond of. But, even if I’m not fond of some of the pieces I do really like the overall aesthetic! There's so many fun colorful textiles!

Du Yuelian, the woman most often shown wearing men’s clothing, is a badass and I love her! She also has an interesting friendship with the FL, which I wish got more screen time.

Spoilers.The ending is sad though! Both the main characters more or less die. They do accomplish their goals though, so its not entirely tragic. Still I was sad and I probably wouldn’t have starting watching it if I had known

ETA(later the same day): Now that I have been thinking about it I'm irritated that Nan Fengyi never told Meng Xizhou that he didn't really kill her uncle and all those people! It would have solved some problems and I can't see any reason why he wouldn't tell her! I may have spent some time plotting a fix-it AU where her little sister finds this out and plays matchmaker


Overall a very engaging show! I’m full of feelings about it right now.

Content notes: gore, animal death, parental death, childbirth, forced castration, torture
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
Here's a few thoughts on recent media I've read and watched. But first an update on my Reading Joyfully project:

I've realized that I was trying too hard to read the exact right thing at the exact right time. I kept thinking that I must find the exact right thing to read in the exact right mood because then I’d enjoy the book the most possible, but it was stressing me out and making reading less fun. So I’m thinking about how to find a good balance between only reading what I feel like reading with that level of perfectionism

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong—This is a recent cozy fantasy novel that’s getting a lot of buzz. Though I don’t think I would have called in cozy if it wasn’t being marketed that way. I guess I really don’t understand what’s happening in cozy SFF these days

I had mixed feelings about the book. The worldbuilding felt very vibes based, and the pacing was bit uneven but I liked that it focused on friendship and didn’t have any romance, and the concept of small fortunes is fun! My friend Jenny has much more thoughtful review that you should check out.

Finder by Suzanne Palmer—I have several friends who really love this book so I decided to check it out even though it didn’t sound like the kind of thing I generally like. This is a really good example of the thing that it is but unfortunately I was right and it's not my kind of thing. Which makes it a bit hard to write about it. I’m just not into loner dude causes trouble while trying not to care about other people type stories. I liked it enough to read all of it, it's fun, the worldbuilding is good, the main character actually does care about other people despite his best efforts. But I don’t plan to read the rest of the series.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal ep 13-20— I raced through this, it was exactly the thing I needed to be watching at the time. This is a fun show, and I’m glad I watched it. I did think that the way the show handled queerness left a lot to be desired, and the show is at best ambivalent about monarchy as an institution. However I really liked the characters and enjoyed their friendships and shenanigans (also there is surprising amount of good fic for this show which I’m still working my way through)
forestofglory: Wen Qing from The Untamed (Wen Qing)
I have been watching a lot of TV the last couple of weeks. I seem to be on a kdramas about women scholar kick (If two dramas in a row counts as kick) Here's what I've read and watched recently:

The Anonymous Letters of C Forestier by Felicia Davin — The third and final book of the French letters series, this one was grimer than the first two, and it took me a bit longer to get used to the characters' voices. Probably my favorite part though was Victor’s and Isabelle’s relationship with each other.

Keep Running Special Season ep 2-5— This continues to be fun! I want to make my own personalized tea cake. Not exactly a content note but there are some very touristy bits with ethnic minorities, and I don’t know enough about how racism against these groups functions to say anything about how well they are represented here.

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung ep 16-20— AHHHH! This was really good! I loved it so much! I had so many feelings about so many things! History! gender roles! Siblings! I liked how the show depicted monarchy while not endorsing it, I guess some people might find it too on the nose, but after a lot of media that is not very critical of monarchy I thought it was a nice change. There are also a ton of great characters! I just really loved the whole show. (I think I could be really fanish about this in the right circumstances but, well, small fandoms are tricky, and I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment)

Sungkyunkwan Scandal ep 1-12—After I loved Rookie Historian I decided to watch another Korean historical drama about a woman scholar. I was a little worried that it would suffer in comparison, and it probably does a little bit, but they are different enough that it's not a huge deal. This drama is about a girl who has to crossdress to attend a prestigious all male school. So far it's very fun! There’s lots of roommate shenanigans, and school story tropes, but also a bigger political story that hasn’t come fully into focus yet. Though I liked the earlier bits where everyone was very passionate about ethics and scholarship more than the current storyline which is more romance focused. So far it feels less critical of monarchy than Rookie Historian did but I’m excited to see where it goes.

Do any of you have other recs for historical dramas about women scholars? They don't have to be kdramas.
forestofglory: Zhao Yunlan offering Shen Wei  meat on a stick (吃吧 (chi ba) and is an offer of food, something like "eat this, please.") (feeding people)
Thanks for all your kind and thoughtful responses to my post about reading joyfully. I’m going to try to post occasional updates on that as part of these media round-ups. I’ve been experimenting with doing things other than reading in my non-screen winding down before bed time, it's a bit hard to find non-reading things that are ok for my hands though. Anyways given I’ve been reading a bit less this post is mostly dramas.

Keep Running Special Season ep 1 [personal profile] libitina saw this on a list of currently airing shows and thought it was the kind of thing I would enjoy. She was correct! Keep Running is a Chinese travel variety show with a lot of seasons that I’ve been thinking about checking out but wasn’t sure where to start. This special season is about a group of people retracing the Tea Horse Road, so it’s got bits of fun history and tea. (content note: weight loss/diet culture)

The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin—Sequel to The Scandalous Letters of V and J. It’s been a bit since I read a book then read a couple of other things before reading the sequel, but I used to do that a lot and it's nice. Reading everything at once can be too much but if there's too long a gap between books I forget too much.

This book was as charming as the first one. In the tradition of romance series this focuses on a different set of people than the first book, most of whom were characters in the first book. I liked all of them and was happy to get to know them! And it was nice to see the characters from previous books here as well.

Woodwitch by Skye McKenna— Sequel to Hedgewitch, read out loud to the kid. A solid MG british fantasy book

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung ep 1-15—I’m really enjoying this! It’s got my beloved young woman trying to succeed at a historically masculine job trope! The ML is princess coded and that's delightful! He’s my favorite character which I wouldn’t have expected.

This is the first time I’ve watched a Korean drama. I usually try to save my limited TV watching for Mandarin language stuff. Also the episodes tend to be really long. However it’s kinda neat to see what’s similar and different to the Chinese dramas I’ve watched. Like the way the court works. (I’m still sneaking a little language practice in because they write in classical Chinese)

Content note: smallpox plague, child death, suicide

Soul Sisters ep 1-7—Cute baihe-ish mini drama, the subtitles are machine translated and bad, but I was worried that this would get taken down. But now there’s a project to make better subtitles so I might wait to watch the rest.
forestofglory: Cup of tea on a pile of books (books)
2024 was a mixed reading year for me. I read some books that I loved, some books that were fine. You can see all my 2024 books at Goodreads. I also spent a lot of time wanting to read new to me novels and not having the focus.

The best thing for my reading that happened in 2024 was I got a new bigger ereader. The primary goal was to reduce page turns and button presses for hand pain reasons, but having a bigger screen made it way easier to read PDFs and I read a lot of papers! I love the note taking features of the new ereader too!

A major focus of my reading in 2024 was research for projects I was working on. I learned more about Tang dynasty China for Harmonious Kinship and lot about doasist history for Wei Furen

My reading goal for 2025 is simple: Read joyfully! I’m sure what that means in practice but that’s the point.

Before the pandemic started I easily and happily read well over 100 books in a year. I read 170 books in 2019. Since the pandemic started, the most books I’ve read in a year is 73, and I’ve gone through months and months of not reading any fiction but fic. I miss being a person who reads that much. Reading has been a key part of my identity since I learned how to read. But I don’t think my reading brain is coming back, so I want to learn how to read joyful with the brain I have now.

And while I miss being that person who reads all the time, I think it's helpful and important to recognize that I do like being a person who reads academic papers, studies classical chinese and watches silly chinese reality shows. Those other things take time. I don’t think that’s the only reason I’ve been reading less, I really do think I’m less able to engage with new stories, but its good to keep in mind that other things have changed too.

I am going to be experimenting with reading differently. Maybe I’ll try reading in different times and places, maybe I’ll try reading less. I am not going to push myself to read things that I'm not feeling. And I’m going to acknowledge that change happens and that’s ok.
forestofglory: E. H. Shepard drawing of Christopher Robin and Pooh floating in a upturned  umbrella , with the word Ahoy in the corner (The Brain of Pooh)
I have stared off 2025 with a terrible cold which meant doing lot of nothing! But today I'm feeling a better and my brain is clearer. I hope the start of the year has been kinder to all of you!

Anyways here are some thoughts on media from the end of 2024. Some of these overlap with my DecRec posts

Gender, Power, and Talent: The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China by Jinhua Jia—More or less what it says on the tin. Lots of profiles of interesting Tang dynasty women here! I do think the author not sceptical enough of official histories, and I ended up skimming most of the literary analysis.

What The Hell Is Love ep 1-10—This Taiwanese drama, is modern but with ghosts -- but the ghosts are represented by people covered in green makeup, also sometimes the ML has visions of Diyu which is shown as industrial ruins with trippy lighting. This is not a complaint. I enjoyed the silly special effects.

It was pretty fun for a while, though definitely a bit 'Am I confused because the subtitles are bad, because I lack cultural context, or because this is some nonsense?" But then the show moved away from ghosts and cases to have some heterosexual nonsense, and I wasn't finding any of the romance stuff compelling at all, but when it finally got to another case it was storyline that I was just extremely Nope about

Content notes: death and grieving, cancer, medical fiances, infertility, rape

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma — A friend suggested a group read along of this book for the solstice, which I thought was an excellent idea. I had read this and loved it when it first came out, but I was a little worried that it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it. But it was! It’s a contemporary fantasy story about two metamores who dislike each other but have to work together to save their mutual boyfriend. It’s extremely good, the writing is beautiful, the characters are great, the magic makes sense while at the same time feeling numinous, and everything is just so keenly observed.

It was lovely to reread this with friends reading it for the first time. One thing I love about this book is how it makes me and many people I know feel seen in ways we don’t often feel seen by the media.

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis—Once I reread one of my favorite solstice themed novellas I thought it would be fun to reread the other one. This is such a delight I forgot that Cassandra Harwood is such a super smart disabled chaos muppet, but I love her so much! Her family is great too!

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1-14 by Afro—I read the first ten of these a while back then a few years ago I watched the anime. I thought it would be nice to return and read the volumes that have come out since then. It’s a very charming slice of life story about high school girls going camping, with lots of food and friendship. Having watched the anime where the characters have different colored hair I found it easier to tell them apart than the last time I read this. I got these in paper form the library but it turns out that paper maga and my hands don’t play well together– so I should probably return the other manga I checked out at the same time without reading it. (content note: fatbopia and diet culture, excessive drunkenness )
forestofglory: E. H. Shepard drawing of Christopher Robin reading a book to Pooh (Default)
25) Tonight's the first night of Hanukah so I thought for #DecRecs today I would rec the lovely Jewish short fantasy story "Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land" by Ruthanna Emrys

about finding magic in unexpected places and building community

https://reactormag.com/seven-commentaries-on-an-imperfect-land-ruthanna-emrys/

26)Yuletide has brought us two new "Fandom for Robots" fics and they are both great!

Processing Time
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61422142

This one leans into some of the darker aspects of the source material so mind the tags. Utterly gorgeous!

Interview with the Robot
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61619161

Featuring a mildly baffled but kind museum director

both lovely and worth your time!

27)I couldn't let a reccing event go by with out yelling about The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen so that's today's #DecRecs

I love this book so much! It's about the nitty-gritty of diplomatic travel in Central Asia between 850-1000 CE, and it centers the city of Dunhuang, which was during this period sometimes part of various imperial states in the region but mostly an independent city state. I love that it decenters China!

A significant source of information for this book is the documents found in the library cave at Dunhuang, an important source for this time period in general.

I totally fangirl Xin Wen based on his scholar ship, he's so smart and reads so many langues and has a sharp eye for details! I especially love all the detail about the material culture of travel here

28) It's been a very busy day and I haven't actually had time to sit down at my computer. So here's a drive by #DecRecs

The House of Aunts by Zen Cho!

The trials and tribulations of being a Malaysian teen vampire with six aunts

https://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/


(I know I didn't include today's rec, but 1. I haven't posted it yet and 2. I want the final post to include more than two recs)
forestofglory: Zhao Yunlan offering Shen Wei  meat on a stick (吃吧 (chi ba) and is an offer of food, something like "eat this, please.") (Guardian)
21) It's the winter solstice here in the Northern hemisphere, so for #DecRecs I'm reccing: Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma

I reread this yesterday so I can say with confidence that its extremely good!

It’s a contemporary fantasy novella about two metamores who dislike each other but have to work together to save their mutual boyfriend. The writing is beautiful, the characters are great, and there's so many keenly observed details!


22)Today #DecRecs is also a solstice themed novella: Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis!

I reread this yesterday and it is such a delight! Recency-ish fantasy, with house parties, elves and romance.

Cassandra Harwood is such a super smart disabled chaos muppet, but I love her so much! Her family is great too!


23) Recing a song for #DecRecs today

This is from the first season of Our Song and watching in never fails to cheer me up at least a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qoZTtE0sRQ&list=PLtRyFdw91Awx0WofApkwlzAfF7fbbcMBC&index=4

24) I think there's fair number of people here who enjoy both DWJ and MDZS/The Untamed but I'm not sure how many of you know about this Lives of Christopher Chat fusion: The Lives of Lan Wangji By azurewaxwing

It's so much fun, it's got a good DWJ-ish voice, but the characters feel very much themselves. Also an excellent terrible cat

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27525991
forestofglory: A drawing of a woman wearing white riding a leaping brown horse (The Long Ballad)
17)Today I’m reccing one of my favorite cdramas ever: The Long Ballad

It has so many of my favorite things: A super smart chaos muppet who is also an extraordinary young woman succeeding at typically masculine pursuits, an girl who is not like other girls and her best friend who is, badass older women, and also really excellent character arcs

I could go on about this forever but instead I’ll just link you to the primer and rec list I wrote last year https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/361221.html

18)For #DecRecs today I bring you an academic paper: “‘What Do Barbarians Know of Gratitude?’ - The Stereotype of Barbarian Perfidy and Its Uses in Tang Foreign Policy Rhetoric” by Shao-yun Yang

Now many of you know that I dislike Tang Taizong rather a lot so I appreciate this paper for calling him out on his BS. But It's just really interesting paper especially if you are interested in ethic identity in Chinese history
https://www.academia.edu/5290394/_What_Do_Barbarians_Know_of_Gratitude_The_Stereotype_of_Barbarian_Perfidy_and_Its_Uses_in_Tang_Foreign_Policy_Rhetoric?sm=b

19)Today for #DecRecs I'm reccing Laid Back Camp!

I have recently started rereading the first several volumes of this charming maga (with the intention of then reading the volumes that I haven't read yet) There is also an anime which is great too!

It's a slice of life story about high school girls going camping, with lots of food, friendship, and pretty scenery. Very lovely and warm and also likely to make you hungry!

20) Reccing fic for #DecRecs today!

"Spring Splendor" by ayeshah

This is a fic based on Song of the Long March, the manhua which is the inspiration of The Long Ballad, but basically reads as historical RPF about Princess Yicheng of Sui, who is the loose inspiration for a character in both the manhua and the drama.

She seems really interesting and badass and I'm sad that men didn't write down more about her life
So I really love that this fic digs into what we know about Princess Yicheng and tried to image what her life would be like!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235845

(This set accidentally ended up Long Ballad themed)

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