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K.

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Currently reading

The Last Precinct (Kay Scarpetta, #11)
Patricia Cornwell
Progress: 295/422 pages
Endgame
Kristine Smith
Progress: 130/400 pages
Young Avengers, Vol. 1: Sidekicks - Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung Everything is Billy and Teddy and grandpa!Isaiah feels and Kate being a badass and nothing hurts. Except when they get involved in Civil War but yaaaaay not in this book!
The Gilded Chain - Dave Duncan The ideas were there (magically bound nubile young swordsmen to serve as guardians for the King and anyone he wants!), but the execution was messy. The novel takes place over a long span of time and, contrary to what one may think, this actually makes it more difficult to get to know the main character(s).

We start with Durendal as a young man filled with thoughts of glory and adventure in the name of his liege lord. With an ungraceful swordthrust to the heart, he becomes the babysitter of the newest Royal Mistress's brother. His life will be boredom and willing serving wenches, woe!

As he is our protagonist, naturally something awful happens to him and his ward. After this is given a good three or four pages, we kind of ... move forward into the future? All his growing up and maturing and getting past the magically-induced pain is glossed over and Durendal is suddenly a man.

This is a trend that follows throughout the book - there's one large adventure (strangely enough, also ends in tragedy!) and then Durendal's life is just one long telling without a whole lot of showing.

The one character I really liked died, of course. Poor Wolfbiter, you were wasted.
As Nature Made Him : The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl - John Colapinto Having a passing familiarity with this case, it is horrible to read David's monologue of contentment with his life as it was at the time of publication (2000) knowing that he killed himself just a few years later.

Though Colapinto tries to hold onto the idea that this book is unbiased, it is very clear to me that Dr. John Money was the bad guy in this story. It is, after all, David's story and Money was the specter of all the terrible things that shaped his childhood. The descriptions of David's visits are frankly sickening to read. He and his twin brother endure very explicit questions about their bodies, their awareness of other people's sexual behaviors and forced (at least once) to simulate copulation with one another.

Money did a lot of good as a sexual scientist to bring awareness to the general public about several fetishes being normal, but his attitude towards child sexual "exploration" is strange and neurotic. His belief that sexual rehearsal play was something that allowed all children to grow up "entirely free of any psychosexual gender confusions or dysfunction" is without foundation - he bases it on a two week study of the Yolgnu, an aboriginal tribe in Northern Australia. This is refuted heavily by a colleague who has studied this particular tribe for several decades, having never seen any sexual rehearsal play and treated many of them for sexual neuroses (in whatever forms they may have been).

One of the worst things to read over and over was that so many other professionals involved in the family's therapy and care kept trying to convince David of things he knew not to be true; mainly that he needed vaginoplasty to be complete. The only thing this professional conviction was based on was Dr. Money's say-so. The evidence of the case's failure was in front of them in the surly "tomboy" who defied all their attempts to "help".

Daken: Dark Wolverine: The Pride Comes Before The Fall

Daken: Dark Wolverine: The Pride Comes Before The Fall - Rob Williams,  Mick Bertilorenzi (Illustrator),  Matteo Buffagni (Illustrator) My god, the scenes where Daken is under the influence of Heat are so incredible. How do you art?

Daken: Dark Wolverine: No More Heroes

Daken: Dark Wolverine: No More Heroes - Alessandro Vitti, Rob Williams Daken is not a likeable character, in that he is a psychopath who knows he's a psychopath. Despite all that, despite knowing what he's done to people throughout his series, this ending makes me incredibly sad. Sad for that little boy and the man he could have grown up to be.

X-23, Vol. 2: Chaos Theory - Marjorie M. Liu, Will Conrad, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto The artist for this series does beautiful work. She even manages to make Wolverine look strangely pretty.

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Jubilee is just a joy to read, she's so endearing (even as a vampire). I love that she just takes to Laura so easily, even after their less-than-friendly first meeting.
Dead Ever After - Charlaine Harris Quite honestly, if you didn't seen this endgame coming, then I'm not sure what series you've been reading.
Power Girl, Vol. 1: A New Beginning - Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner I love Peeg. I love her relationship with Terra. I love her snark, even when she's being mushed to the ground.

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I love that she kicks sexists in their teeth (literally and metaphorically). And I love Amanda Conner's art. I know Peeg's background is essentially "poor man's lady version of Superman", but I think the development of her character has shown that she is a completely separate personality.
Power Girl, Vol. 2: Aliens and Apes - Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner Vartox is ridiculous.

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The First Four Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams It's a little jarring to go from one style for eight books to this one, which is a much more rambling diary-esque format. Also, Almanzo becomes "Manly", which is just a hilarious nickname.
Wolverine First Class: Class Actions - Peter David, Ronan Cliquet I absolutely love the Skottie Young covers for these issues.
Wolverine: First Class - To Russia, With Love - Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry It's weird to see Kitty so interested in Piotr, because you don't really see them interact at all in this series. I guess that lack really drives home the idea of one-sided puppy love.
The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams I'm still waiting for more interaction between Almanzo and Laura. It's nice to actually root for a couple in a book.

Wolverine: First Class - Wolverine-by-Night (Wolverine: First Class (Marvel Comics))

Wolverine: First Class - Wolverine-by-Night - Fred Van Lente, Francis Portela, Frances Portela, Dave Williams, Scott Koblish Random werewolf story arc is random.

The Rookie (Wolverine: First Class, Vol. 1)

Wolverine: First Class - The Rookie - Fred Van Lente, Andrea DiVito Oh my goodness, the sass between Kitty and Logan is just fabulous.
Blue Beetle, Vol. 4: End Game - Jai Nitz, Justin Peniston, Rafael Albuquerque, Andy Kuhn, John Rogers, Mike Norton, Trevor Scott Jaime is still my favorite. Still apprehensive about New 52's version of him (I've heard they ruined his supporting cast ...)