errata

I goofed again. I decided to have more dresses made. Problem was, the tailor I went to has fabrics that are not even in the arena with the fabrics Ted’s tailor has – his has fine English and Italian wools, mine had a wool / poly blend. But his doesn’t do women. Since he wanted some more trousers anyhow, I went along, bought some fabrics at his tailor, then took them to *mine*> (Mine did a fabulous job on the fitting and tailoring part, it was just the fabric that wasn’t as nice as I’d like.)

Then in an additional series of errata, we headed diagonally across the city to our favoriite brewpub near Taipei 101, found they had a Halloween party with an 80-90 minute wait, decided we both really needed food soon, went back across town to the tailor because the best burgers in town are in a small pub around the corner, ordered, and then while Ted hung out I walked back to the tailor and droped off the jeans I needed hemmed but had forgotten to give them.

The real goof wasn’t actually the jeans or the food – it was that I left my tailormade dress with them to copy, totally forgetting I wanted to wear them to a wedding Saturday. Oops!

But at least I’ll have good dresses in a couple of weeks.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

a couple of quick reviews

Graceling

I’m almost done reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore, which I bought because I’ve seen it recommendedseveral places as one of the best YA books of the last year or so. I’m liking it, but I can’t recommend it without warnings. The basic premise is that there are a few people, marked by two different-colored eyes, who are Gracelings gifted with some superlative talent. The Grace can be anything from cooking to fighting to mind-reading. Katsa’s Grace is killing; for most of her life she’s been the tool of her uncle King Randa, and now she much learn to trust others, take ownership of her own gift, and use it to help instead of hurting others. Graceling has a lot of interesting ideas, but it’s a first book, and not surprisingly it can be a bit obvious in presenting its theme and metaphors. That wouldn’t stop me – YA books need to be a little clearer about theme; I love the Tiffany Aching books and Pratchett isn’t overly subtle in those. But a strong theme here is abuse, of one’s own gifts and of other people, and there are some situations that are a bit too clearly metaphors of real-world abusive situations. I’m not prone to being triggered, never been abused or been around someone I cared about while they were being abused (that I knew about) but there was a point where I had to put the book down for a bit.

That’s not entirely a criticism – obviously, it wouldn’t have affected me enough to be painful if the book hadn’t made me care about the characters. So I’d recommend Graceling – but not without warning.

Rosemary and Rue

While traveling I read Seanan Maguire’s Rosemary and Rue The fantasy element is based on Faery Lore You Don’t See rather than Post-Apacalyptic Return of Magic, but in other ways it reminds me a bit of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series (Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes), and I liked it for the same reason. When the heroine kicks ass, there’s a reason she can. When she gets hurt, either it slows her down or she heals fast and there’s a reason for that too. Sometimes she needs her friends’ help, and sometimes they need hers, and there are still problems even after happy endings. Who she sleeps with is decided by her head as well as her gonads – or if not, there are problems. People who have been hurt have scars, physical and emotional, and those affect their reactions. I can’t exactly say either series is realistic, given that I don’t actually know any female PIs, paladins or mercenaries who go around fighting for the good guys on a regular basis. But if I did, I think they’d be like this.

Though it’s a dark-ish fantasy, Rosemary and Rue is somehow lighter than Graceling. So are the Kate Danials books, and those include parental abuse and abandonment, but they don’t bother me in the same way, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s mostly the tone of the book, and maybe partly that the situations are not as obviously analogous to real world ones. Except for the ones in RR that are (what happens to runaways) but those still feel a bit more distant, somehow.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.