I'm back!

[yendi]

Warning: This post contains natterings about:



Well, we made it back safely. shadesong has already given updates on Friday's events (just see her journal for details), so I won't add much, other than to say it was awesome finally meeting onceupon, and meeting foxmagic, dnotenshi, silentire, and everyone else for the first time. That said, nice as meeting the new folks was, hanging out with morenasangre and farren was what really made the day worthwhile. They're good friends, and people we don't see often enough.



On Saturday, we'd originally planned to go to the nifty make-your-own-pancake place (with both of 's families), but the wait was two hours. Which was a bit longer than even the adults had patience for. So we headed to Perkins, where we pigged out. We then sent Elayna down to South FLA with her grandparents, so we now have the house kid-free for eight days. It's nice on some levels (the cursing, the sleeping in), but I miss her.


Judy's flight was way before ours, so we gambled, successfully, on our being able to get on her flight via Standby (Daytona's not exactly a hopping airport), and made it home early, where vidicon was nice enough to pick us up from the airport. We headed home, ordered pizza, and watched The Cat's Meow.

Anyone who misses this movie is missing a treat. Aside from a great cast (Kirsten Dunst, Edward Hermann as W.R. Hearst, Cary Elwes, Eddie Izzard and Joanna Lumley in nice dramatic roles), it's just a superb little movie, quite fun. It's technically a period piece, but it's much more than that -- it's got some intrigue, and nifty historical speculation, and a bunch of characters worth watching. And Dunst gets better each time I see her. She has the most expressive face I've ever seen. I'll watch her in anything. From what I can see from a few photos on the web, she really became Marion Davies for this role.




After, when vidicon left and shadesong went to bed, I finished the third Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first two. I'm nervous about reading the fourth, as there are two things about the third -- the elevation of Lula, a character who becomes totally unbearable after about two pages, to major character status; and the ending, which may make it damned tough for Evanovich to keep the tension between Plum and Morelli so damned high. I've got the fourth book (and the fifth, sixth, and seventh), but will wait a bit before reading it, I think.


and


I also finally read the first Liaden book. Was nifty. The comparisons to Bujold and Weber were certainly legit (although the writing isn't quite as taut). It's fun space opera stuff. Although I do wish that I'd known that it was about psychics. Psychics annoy me (fictional ones, of course -- real ones don't annoy me anymore than real vampires, real dragons, or real sound Republican fiscal policies annoy me, for the same reasons). Like the Stephanie Plum books, I think I'll take in one of these every couple of weeks, instead of devouring all of them at once.

Comments

[dreamcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I got a chance to meet Janet Evonavich at a book signing last month for her new book ~~She is nice but they rushed you through so many people ~~The suspense between Morelli and her is fun but I love it more between Ranger and her ~~

[yendi]

Ranger hasn't done nearly enough in the series so far, but I like him as a character. If he gets more time in the later books, that's a good thing.

[dreamcowgirl.livejournal.com]

OOOOPPPS ~~~Keep reading~~

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

I found The Cat's Meow to just be way too long of a movie. There's so much that could have been edited. I really enjoyed seeing these actors together. There was some nice chemistry. But gods, that was just way too long.

[yendi]

It honestly didn't strike me as too long at all. Felt like it rushed by in no time, actually. *shrug*

[lonesomenumber1]

Heh. In the last three weeks, I finished both the Liaden series (by first do you mean Local Custom - first chronologically - or Conflict of Honors - first written, or one of the omnibuses containing same?) and the Stephanie Plum books, except for Visions of Sugarplums, which I got Andrea for Christmas. Lula has grown on me. The series is getting a little creaky by Hard Eight, though.

Now I'm reading Voyage of the Shadowmoon,by Sean McMullen, but on deck is the first Honor Harrington book.

[yendi]

It was Conflict of Honors, in the first omnibus.

Glad to hear that Lula becomes more tolerable. I'm not surprised that the series goes a bit downhill -- most detective books do after four or five books (mainly because they become about giving fans the expected cliches, instead of character development).

I haven't finished the Honor books, but all that I've read have been a blast.

[lonesomenumber1]

It was Conflict of Honors, in the first omnibus.

Ah. FWIW, I thought that was the weakest book in the series, although I don't have any particular problem with fictional psychics.

Glad to hear that Lula becomes more tolerable. I'm not surprised that the series goes a bit downhill -- most detective books do after four or five books (mainly because they become about giving fans the expected cliches, instead of character development).

Well, that doesn't hurt the Stephanie Plum books as much as it does a straight P.I. series, because half of the fun is watching the same ridiculous things happen to her over and over again.

I haven't finished the Honor books, but all that I've read have been a blast.

I'm enjoying On Basilisk Station, but the lengthy descriptions of the technology tend to make my eyes glaze over. I didn't have this problem with the Vorkosigan or Liaden series, or Patrick O'Brian for that matter, so I'm thinking it's Weber and not me.