Read-a-thon: closing remarks

Well, the weekend is over, more's the pity...and I did not finish First Rider's Call. Ack! It's a slacker I am. HOWEVER, I did finish a reasonably dense volume of feminist prose (o hai thar 10 Things I Hate About You) and I'm proud of that. I also have a few more things to say about my current read (spoilers below).

I said in my previous post that Britain's world-building isn't terribly different from the typical post-Tolkien fantasies crowding the shelves at Borders. This remains mostly true, but the further I've gotten into First Rider's Call, the more I see some interesting differences and nuances to Britain's writing (and the Green Rider books are DEFINITELY no Iron Tower, gag me with a forklift). Obviously she had a chance to dig into the culture and history she was creating in her second book, more so than in Green Rider. For one thing, the country of the Green Riders, Sacoridia, is located in "a new world"--presumably some analog to the north and south American continent. There may have been mention of this in the first book, but I don't think there was. Plenty of tasty history is unloaded in First Rider's Call, including some time travel and interactions with the First Rider herself, Lil Ambrioth. The history of Sacoridia is shown to be that of warring, loosely-knit clans who came together to fight the invaders, people from an empire--Arcosia--across the pond reminiscient of Rome. The magic of Arcosia and of Sacor are different, and both are different from magic utilized by the Elt (an elf-type race living in the new world), and magic in Karigan's day is almost extinct; the "special abilities" of the Riders are all that remains of the once-rich magical world of Sacoridia (the Elt use magic, but as yet we don't know much about them). On the whole Britain's world IS different enough from standard fantasy worlds to be compelling. I am definitely on board with this series and am looking forward to the next installments.

The Unputdownables Read-a-thon was really fun and I'm glad I participated, even if I didn't meet my two-book goal (and how sad does that sound...used to be I could rip through a hardback like First Rider's Call in a number of hours. Getting old and busy is no fun, QQ). It was mostly just nice to be reading along with others, and having an excuse to spend a good portion of my weekend inside a book.

We be reading

8:04pm, Florida time: Weaving the Visions is finished! An excellent collection of essays; I'd recommend it to anyone interested in women's critiques of mainstream religion or theories of goddess religion.

Chugging along with First Rider's Call. Kristen Britain is a very enjoyable fantasy writer. Her world-building isn't significantly different from typical medieval-style fantasy, but her plots and characters are enjoyable enough that it doesn't really matter. I'm quite a bit behind as far as the Green Riders go, since Green Rider was released in 1998, and there's another book after First Rider's Call--The High King's Tomb--AND there is a fourth being released next year, Blackveil. I have quite a bit of catching up to do! But I only bought the first book a few months ago in a used bookstore, and then got the second in a hardback first edition at the amazing St. Petersburg antique book fair. I like fantasy and though I definitely enjoy authors who branch out and use myth bases beyond the European (see N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for a FABULOUS example), the Green Rider books are fun and fast-paced, and Karigan is an engaging heroine.

Unfortunately I will likely not be finished with First Rider's Call tonight, as I made a trip to the bookstore today and have been sidetracked by a new trade of Astonishing X-Men. But at least I got all my grading done! Happy reading, folks.

Read-a-thon, y'all

12:38pm Florida time: progress in Weaving the Visions=page 138. Progress in First Rider's Call=page 40.

Weaving the Visions is excellent. A few passages I found striking below:

"God as Mother", Sallie McFague: "If we are, then, to be concrete, personal, and nonidolatrous in our talk about God, we have no alternative but to speak of God in female as well as male terms, to use "she" as well as "he", and to realize that in so doing we are not attributing passive and nurturing activities to God any more than we are attributing active and powerful activities. Or to say it differently, we are attributing human qualities: we are imaging God on analogy with human beings, and so far that is all wea re doing: God is she and he and neither."

"The Power of Anger in the Work of Love", Beverly Wildung Harrison: "The important point here, however, is that a theology that overvalues static and passive qualities as "holy", that equates spirituality with noninvolvement and contemplation, that views the activity of sustaining daily life as mundane and unimportant religiouosly...could not have been formulated by women." (italics in original)

"Uses of the Erotic", Audre Lorde: "We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings...to suppress any truth is to give it strength beyond endurance."

Weaving the Visions is really excellent. It's an older anthology (published in 1989 and updated from a previous anthology, Womanspirit Rising, published in the 70s) but it has some very choice essays that don't read as dated. As a committed feminist agnostic with a booknerd's interest in mythology and pagan religions, this anthology is like soul food. It's pleasantly balanced--some of the essays focus on Christianity, some on Judaism, some on neopagan systems, some on Native American or Afro-Caribbean or Asian traditions--and some of the ideas are downright radical, even for today (I mean...let's face it: we haven't really progressed much, as a society, as far as religion goes since the 80s).

I should be finishing this text sometime this afternoon (as I will be avoiding the mountain of papers to be graded). Then, onto First Rider's Call in earnest! Happy reading, everyone.

48-Hour TBR Read-a-thon!

Hello chitlins. SO, Unputdownables is holding a 48-hour To Be Read Read-a-thon for this weekend and yours truly will be participating! For those not inclined to click through the link thar, basically it's this: pick a book or two that's been on your To Be Read pile for a while and try to get through it/them this weekend! YAY A REASON TO ENFORCE READING TIME ON MY DEAR MANCREATURE.

My books are: Weaving the Visions, edited by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow (an anthology of feminist/womanist critiques of mainstream religion) and First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain (the sequel to Green Rider, a fantasy title). I'll have a nice bit of hefty theo/alogical philosophizing along with a good, fast-paced fantasy with a cool heroine!

I would encourage anyone reading to participate, certainly. You can sign up at the Unputdownables website and post a link on your own blog. I will be updating a few times this weekend with progress reports (when I find a moment betwixt grading papers and wrangling kittens).

Happy reading!

In other reading news, a new dating site has emerged for booklovers and literature snobs: ALikeWise. You put in all your basic info (sex, desired gender of possible partners, birthday, location) and then proceed to put you and your bookshelves out there for people to admire and click with. Personally, this is probably the only dating site I would ever use, if I needed or wanted to use a dating site. At least, the only one until I manage to create my own for librarians: Dewey Dating System.