my perfect Sunday...

[viedma]

...a ginormous brunch sometime around 2PM, followed by a solid afternoon of Do Whatever The Hell You Want. Ahhhh.

Yesterday Vali made chili sin carne al mole from Vegan with a Vengeance. She let the sofrito simmer longer than when she made this last time, and it produced the loveliest slow burn sensation in the mouth, yum. That and some garlicky kale with tahini dressing and brussels sprouts, and the memory of tinned dog food haggis is far, far away.

Vali's reading experiences have been more satisfying to her than mine have been of late. I'm reading The Game by Laurie King. It's not awful, it's just that I don't buy the central premise of the tale: that Sherlock Holmes would not just marry a woman, but marry a woman several million years younger than himself. But have no fear! She's tough! Smart! Beautiful but not too Beautiful! Resourceful! She's Mary Russell!: the wonder somethin'-or-other. (eyeroll)

I'd've ditched it ages ago, but I have to read it because it's for the book group I run and I don't remember things quite as well if I listen to them on tape. So mentally I've been searching and replacing Mary Russell with Watson. So far it's working, even when Watson has to wear a sari to the fancy dress ball on the slow boat to India.

There is one May-December couple that I totally buy, and that's Eight/Lucie Miller. Am listening to Blood of the Daleks and they are just yowsa, and it's made all the better by the fact that Lucie really doesn't care for Eight all that much. HOWEVER, i will be extremely grateful when we can get past this cultural moment of The Big All-Encompassing War That Will Change Everything garbage. It's not like I can blame Americans for this one either, as it's an English production. Here it's more of a case of "Lord of the Ring/later book Harry Potter"itis. Also, Daleks are lame and they suck and they will never be interesting no matter how much stirring music you put behind their screaming. I like the little moments better, of which there are many.

Am keeping happy by reading Vali's Life on Mars fanfic recs. I love how Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt bring out every retro impulse and every slash cliche ever, and do it in such a completely hot way. Moar, said the fangirl!

Comments

[antennapedia.livejournal.com]

Mary Russell is a total Mary Sue. I enjoy the books anyway, but there are Holmes pastiche writers I like far more than LRK. For one thing, her Watson is stupid. Watson. Is. Not. Stupid. Sigh.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Watson is a highly intelligent man--he's just not a genius, like Holmes. That distinction seems to elude everyone who insists against all evidence that he's a bumbling thickheaded fool.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

I used to be craaaaazy about that series - the first two were gems, but I...I don't know, the (increasing) preposterousness of the characterizations have just fizzled me on the whole enterprise. Even the things that used to make Russell a faintly endearing Mary Sue have been smoothed over.

Watson is not stupid. Nor is he a foil for Mary's patronizing ways. He needs to tell her off once or twice.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Your icon, lolz! It reminds me of my first ever May-December crushity-crush. :)

The way Mary treated Holmes in The Beekeeper's Apprentice made me want to smack a bitch. >.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of the other reason I don't like the Mary Russell books-- her characterization of Holmes. Very very wrong. I'm also vaguely squicked by Laurie King's 'long thin clever finger' fetish (I'm more of a rough sturdy hand gal myself). But the group liked when we discussed The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and it was a title we could get for free through interlibrary loan, so there y'are.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I hate the Mary Russell books, but that's OK, I hate the Kate Martinelli books too.

You have, however, put your finger on the reason why I don't belong to a book group. And The Trustee's negative review of the latest thing he saw at The Second Stage is further confirmation of why I don't buy season tickets.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

The thing I get out of book groups is I get to get off the desk for a while and I get to talk about books. It's amazing how little a librarian can spend talking about books unless you really work at it.

What did The Trustee see?

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Three days later he couldn't even remember the name of it.

[traveller.livejournal.com]

oh oh oh THAT is her name, thank you. i once knew someone who was quite obsessed with those books, and the entirety of my reaction was "so it's fanfic? wait, no it's crummy fanfic."

[viedma.livejournal.com]

I think she struck gold with the Kate Martinelli books and they said, hey, got some crap in your junk drawer ya feel like publishin'?

Why, Mr. Darcy, what impressive mantitties you have!

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

Ah, it sounds like Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife (http://www.amazon.com/Darcy-Takes-Wife-Linda-Berdoll/dp/1402202733). It's one of those eleventy-three installment crackfic epics that somehow made its way into print via the self-published route, of all things. (I must notify nihilistic_kid immediately!)

Any thing that bolts out of the gate with both Mr. and Mrs. Darcy sporting fucksore FFGs (that would be Freshly Fucked Glow, btw) in the very first sentence! - well, you've been warned, haven't you? Did I mention that he is uncomfortably large and she is deliciously tight? If you want a book you can internally heckle for 500 pages, if you want to play Fanfic Bingo ("Sex in a carriage...Courtesan...post rape-attempt Healing Sex..." "BINGO!" "We have a winner! Come up and pay for your copy of the sequel!"), if you need something to mock, rant, or wank about in your LJ, HAVE I GOT THE BOOK FOR YOU! Or you could just mosey over to FF.net and read the same sort of trash for free.

Re: Why, Mr. Darcy, what impressive mantitties you have!

[viedma.livejournal.com]

"Take my wife, please!" as a title was taken?

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

You know what I would like to see? Talk about an obscure fandom crossover, but I would love to read a Sherlock Holmes/Twin Peaks AU crossover where Holmes and Agent Cooper end up pursuing the same case by very different means.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I wanna see that too! Like, right now.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Now THAT I'd like to see. chop chop, missy! :D

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

You are of course speaking to violetisblue, right?

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Nope, I had it right the first time.

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

I am both flabbergasted and flattered that you think that I actually have the chops to write something like that.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

God Almighty, I hate that little twunt Mary Russel. Her only good point is she makes the Irene Adler books look like fine literature.