Dear Alan Moore: stop writing women as you're crap at it.

[viedma]

Was on vacation last week. Didn't go anywhere, was very busy with random busy stuff, and yet I am mellow and relaxed and am clearly unfit to go back to work. Which is good because tomorrow I'm going down to Indianapolis for ILF's Legislative Day.

Went to comic book discussion group tonight and had a great time as I do. Read Watchmen, which I haven't read since I was a whippersnapper and am very wired from the endless cups of coffee I couldn't help drinking. I feel vaguely like an alcoholic waking up from a bender and wondering whether or not I have to call everyone up to apologize.

Turns out that everyone in the book group gets "their month" to pick something. I'm frankly intrigued. I'm not sure if I want to listen to people give me their opinions about Fun Home or Birth of a Nation, but am unsure what would be good to pick. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Anything out of the ordinary is good.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah is brilliant, gripping, heartbreaking, and very well-written (which means the translator must have done an ace job.) It's about living in a culture and economy (the area around Naples) which has been completely taken over by the Camorra, the mob. It's not glamorous. It ain't the Godfather, although a lot of mobsters model themselves on that and Scarface. Like In Cold Blood, it moves back and forth between genres: memoir, reporting, philosophy...

There's more to it than voyeurism, though. It's not a book about "let's see how the sexy evil people operate", far less "Aren't you glad you don't live here??" It's about what a completely corrupted economy looks like, about how much of the world's economy is funnelling through Naples, and about what the consequences are for the community.

I've been grabbing people's lapels and saying "You must read Gomorrah!" for a month now.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

ARRRGH. *Comic* book discussion front. Sloppy reading.

You should still read Gomorrah. On the comic book front, if you're prepared to be completely silly, why not Girl Genius?

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, thank you! (*wishlists*) This sounds frankly intriguing.