The EPA is going to rebuild uranium contaminated Navajo homes.

FitSugar discusses the significance of bras in Brandi Chastain’s most famous moment. SweetMachine at Shapely Prose breaks down the complicated relationship between women and boobs. I especially appreciated her discussion of body types, class, and fashion.

Does True Blood hate gay people? You tell us. I know we have some Sookie fans reading along.

Lt Choi’s outing is grossly misinterpreted here. Want to ... READ MORE]]> Bored at work? Check out these links of great interest.

The EPA is going to rebuild uranium contaminated Navajo homes.

FitSugar discusses the significance of bras in Brandi Chastain’s most famous moment. SweetMachine at Shapely Prose breaks down the complicated relationship between women and boobs. I especially appreciated her discussion of body types, class, and fashion.

Does True Blood hate gay people? You tell us. I know we have some Sookie fans reading along.

Lt Choi’s outing is grossly misinterpreted here. Want to help him out? Contact the Courage Campaign.

Nothing but Ghosts is a deceptively simple book, written in smooth, poetic language from the point of view of Katie D’Amore, a 16 year old girl whose mother died months before of cancer.

She blames herself for not seeing how ill her mother was becoming. She thinks about this as she begins to dig both in the library and as a worker on the property of a reclusive woman whom no one has seen in 50 years.

She talks ... READ MORE]]> Publisher: Harper/Teen, June 2009

Nothing but Ghosts is a deceptively simple book, written in smooth, poetic language from the point of view of Katie D’Amore, a 16 year old girl whose mother died months before of cancer.

She blames herself for not seeing how ill her mother was becoming. She thinks about this as she begins to dig both in the library and as a worker on the property of a reclusive woman whom no one has seen in 50 years.

She talks to her mother as she goes through her day, here and there. There’s a yellow finch that won’t stop pecking on her window in the morning. There’s a little boy who keeps her grieving but creative father in touch with life while Katie is off on her own search for life after her mother’s death. There’s the beautiful librarian whose own life seems stalled while Katie sorts through a stack of seven boxes left behind by a mysterious person at the library.

There are no pyrotechnics, no sudden revelations, and there’s a whole lot of support there that Katie, at first, does not notice in her own grief. No blame is passed around and there is no melodrama. Katie deals with her own presence as a ghost within her own life.

Meanwhile, Katie isn’t the only person in the book searching for answers (why did this happen? what is the reason?). That other person is at first hidden in plain sight, and is part of the mystery Katie finds herself trying to solve in order to have her own questions answered: why my mother? why didn’t I see it? will I be able to love someone like my dad loved my mom? and many others.

Nothing But Ghosts is an emotional journey through grief, but it’s never overwhelming. Beth Kephart packs a lot into this modestly sized novel. There’s a lot more going on than Katie sees. It’s up to the reader to read between the lines.

Recommended.

Want to know more about the ongoing conversation about triggers in fanfic? Here is a summary of some of the prior conversations about this issue. Metafandom remains a great resource for further conversations of this ilk. This is a follow-up to last week’s posting, where SBQR pointed out the ablist stance Zvi was taking.

The Transformers race-fail continues. One of the actors comments here that the directors directed him problematically.

In ... READ MORE]]> Bored at work? Check out these links of great interest!

Want to know more about the ongoing conversation about triggers in fanfic? Here is a summary of some of the prior conversations about this issue. Metafandom remains a great resource for further conversations of this ilk. This is a follow-up to last week’s posting, where SBQR pointed out the ablist stance Zvi was taking.

The Transformers race-fail continues. One of the actors comments here that the directors directed him problematically.

In the mood for gamer hilarity? UrsulaLV posts the dialogue of her RPG group’s enactment of The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men.

Laura Miller at Salon praises the heroines of urban fantasy, and describes the pitfalls facing heroines of this genre. I <3 her discussion of Anita Blake. Also, I haven’t seen much talk about class and the way this genre engages with it. :ponders:

ThePrettyYear has a great post up about bra sizes. YES.

There’s been a lot of ongoing discussion of rape, culture, and race. Ithiliana has some very good links, as does Amilyn.

Kali921 discusses the mixed reception of Grant Morrison’s Young Heroes.

SomeSoldiersMom talks about sexual assault in the military.

Darkmatter has a fascinating article up on Wessie Ling’s recent fashion shows.

Persepolis 2.0 offers a graphic summation of the recent electoral controversy in Iran.

Maira Kalman talks about her visit to Monticello. I am displeased with her poo-pooing of Jefferson’s racism.

Dan Savage reports on a recent raid at a gay bar in Fort Worth.

Below are some links that are NOT safe for work! They’re just of great interest.

BlackSexxxology reflects on the retirement age of black women in the porn industry. He also discusses the silmultaneous fetishization and devaluing of black women’s sexuality.

Harris certainly knows how to write a fun female protagonist. Sookie Stackhouse is waitress. She’s unschooled, doesn’t have a typical education, but has a lot of people smarts. Why? Sookie is a rare human telepath in a world filled with vampires who’ve come out of the coffin, were-people (who have not) and other supernatural creatures/goddesses, etc.

It’s a world that’s cock-eyed, but what saves it is Sookie’s point of view, ... READ MORE]]> Books 1-3: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, and Club Dead.

Harris certainly knows how to write a fun female protagonist. Sookie Stackhouse is waitress. She’s unschooled, doesn’t have a typical education, but has a lot of people smarts. Why? Sookie is a rare human telepath in a world filled with vampires who’ve come out of the coffin, were-people (who have not) and other supernatural creatures/goddesses, etc.

It’s a world that’s cock-eyed, but what saves it is Sookie’s point of view, and her extremely quirky brother and family.  Sookie is enamored of Bill the Vampire, at first because she can’t read his mind. He’s a closed book. For a vampire, he’s a nice guy…but is he a Nice Guy ™?

The first three books touch on sex addiction and unhealthy relationships, which gradually even Sookie realizes is what she suffers from with Bill and his boss, Eric. Like another famous vampire groupy in another book/movie series, her blood is different, irresistible, and all the male vampires want to have sex with her–and tell her! Sookie appears to take all the sexual desirability into stride, though. She doesn’t take the guys lying down–not all the time! And has enough back-bone to kick them out of her life periodically.

As much fun as I was having reading Harris’ books, I started having reservations about all the hawt sexxing Sookie has with Bill and Eric (does she never have bad or ordinary sex? Does that not exist in this ‘verse?). Why do so many of the decent female characters, other than Sookie, end up dead, deader and deadest, or have minor roles or are negative?

I’m glad I read the series up until the third book, but I probably won’t read too much farther on. I do recommend the first three, if only to experience a woman in an urban fantasy style book who has a talent, but considers it a handicap-at least for the first few books. Sookie is a lot of fun.

The TV series–please comment on that here, too, if you want! Compare and contrast! What do you think of the book series, and the cable series?

This story has two beginnings — for Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor, this is very much ... READ MORE]]> Whatever you do, DON’T read this while on a layover at JFK. del Toro and Hogan successfully point out the intrinsic creepiness of airports, planes, and subway tunnels in the beginning of their Strain trilogy. The prose is creepy and at times unsettlingly funny, and the images described linger on in your mind’s eye in a way that is eep!-worthy when actually on a plane.

This story has two beginnings — for Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor, this is very much his grandmother’s story. She warned him of the evil Surdu when he was a sickly child, and it’s this grandmother-knowledge that saves him when he’s in the camps. Surdu preys on the evil humans are capable of — the camps were like a buffet of suffering and blood for him.* Setrakian makes it his mission to destroy the beast. He’s now an old pawnbroker in the middle of New York, and is the first one to realize the danger facing the city. He’s been hunting vampires all his life, and isn’t about to let little things like arthritis and heart conditions get in the way.

For Ephraim Goodweather and Nora Martinez, two epidimeologists from the CDC, the story begins when a plane full of dead passengers touches down at JFK. They put their careers on the line to figure out the cause of the passengers’ deaths, eventually realizing that NYC is now the epicenter of a vampiric virus able to destroy the world.

Eph, Nora, and Setrakian are the primary heroes of this battle against the dark. They are, however, joined by a panopoly of characters reflecting the diversity of New York City. A Haitian nanny realizes there’s something very wrong with her boss, and flees with her charges. Gus Elizalde, just out of prison, comes home to discover his ‘hood is much more dangerous than he originally thought. A housebound white woman with pronounced OCD must find the strength to save her family from a threat her rituals have not protected her from. A Russian American exterminator might be the only city official who knows that something is not quite right.

I’m curious to see how this translates into film — I’m hoping neither Nora nor the other female characters are dropped, and that the diversity of the book’s characters is reflected through casting decisions. Nora’s quiet fortitude made the book, as did the underlying tension between Eph and Kelly, his ex-wife, over the custody of Zack, their son. On the one hand, Pan’s Labrynth had several awesome female characters. On the other, Hellboy II was fail on the female character front.

The Strain

*This motif is one of the cool things about this text — NYC was the epicenter of national mourning a few short years ago on 9/11. The ghosts of this national tragedy haunt the city, much in the same way these vampires hunt in it.

———————————————-

Want to win a copy of The Strain? Write a five point vampire survival plan, and post it below. The best submission wins. Contest closes 7/8/09.

I found it INCREDIBLY accessible. Vliet’s indictment of a medical industry that often ignores the needs of female patients is both passionate and terse. She offers her patient anecdotes and data analysis in a way that suggests she respects her audience’s intelligence ... READ MORE]]> Vliet’s introduction to the various issues women face when their hormones are out of whack is actually pretty interesting and very accessible. Also, bonus points for not focusing on fertility, which is something books of this type often do.

I found it INCREDIBLY accessible. Vliet’s indictment of a medical industry that often ignores the needs of female patients is both passionate and terse. She offers her patient anecdotes and data analysis in a way that suggests she respects her audience’s intelligence and commitment to their own physical, mental, and emotional well-being. She also challenges the frequent conflation of weight and health, pointing out that in issues like PCOS, weight is often a symptom, and not the problem. However, please keep in mind that is not an advice book — it’s a book offering an alternative explanation for the symptoms you might be experiencing. If you decide to read it, use it for the handy dandy graphs and fact sheets, which are succint enough to take to your doctor when you’re ready to get your hormones and glucose levels checked out.

It’s My Ovaries, Stupid!

Cathrynne M. Valente is going to be releasing chapters of Circumnavigating Fairyland every Monday. Yum.

Kate Bornstein is all IMAGINE OTHERWISE, positing Wall-E as a butch/femme (b)romance.

Voz-Latina calls out cis women for not paying attention to trans issues.

This article on heterosexual privilege might be a good resource to those of you interested in being a good ally.

Zvi calls out fandom for its unimaginative descriptors of Uhura. You should also ... READ MORE]]> Bored at work? Check out these links of great interest!

Cathrynne M. Valente is going to be releasing chapters of Circumnavigating Fairyland every Monday. Yum.

Kate Bornstein is all IMAGINE OTHERWISE, positing Wall-E as a butch/femme (b)romance.

Voz-Latina calls out cis women for not paying attention to trans issues.

This article on heterosexual privilege might be a good resource to those of you interested in being a good ally.

Zvi calls out fandom for its unimaginative descriptors of Uhura. You should also check out the racism hidden in the new Transformers movie. By “hidden,” I mean “completely not obvious to anyone at all ever.” Zvi has actually been a very busy beaver these last few days… zhe’s also got a post up on trigger warnings and fanfic. Darkrose responds to this post here.

The Lesbian Poetry Archive is expanding by leaps and bounds.

In news of of the F’ed Up, an indigenous woman was separated from her daughter by MS authorities. Who knew ENGLISH was a parental requirement? If you want to help the mother and child in question, check out this post from FlipFloppingJoy.If you would instead like to read more about Diners Club and their offer of Vietnamese brides, check out AngryAsianMan’s post here. Racewire is also talking about it.

TroubleInChina has a bunch of neato links on ablism in schools and Star Trek. Of particular interest is this discussion of Geordi’s blindness.

Marjorie M. Liu has a book-based scavenger hunt. One of the characters from Hunter’s Kiss has written a letter to the protagonist of that series; this letter is canon but will NOT appear in the books.

Gabi from Young,Fat,andFabulous interviewed America’s Next Top Model’s first “plus-size” winner.

Below are some links that are NOT safe for work! They’re just of great interest.

SugarBank’s got some reflections on the recent AIDS outbreak in the porno industry. Here’s some discussion of how this issue gets read as a gay issue specifically, even though AIDS itself doesn’t discriminate.