A Bit Bookish

I'm only a few pages in, but I'm thinking this is the most immediately exciting tale in the whole chronicle and I thought I'd recommend it. In the Barnes & Noble version it comes toward the latter half of Vol. 2, as it was published during that time, but on the story timeline it takes place much earlier, during the time of Watson's marriage; I think it could be read and enjoyed no matter where you are in the series.
Mrs. Hudson comes to Dr. Watson in his home and informs him that Holmes has contracted a deadly disease, and has refused a doctor until now. Of course, Watson rushes to his side. The picture of Holmes in his sickbed is heartbreaking and vivid and immediately his strange words and actions begin building a mystery- is he delirious or does that box on the mantle contain something more sinister than expected? Half the stuff Holmes normally says and does seems a little nuts until his reasoning is explained, so right away I found myself searching for clues. 
Holmes refuses to let Watson treat or even touch him for fear of spreading the disease- and as he rudely tells his best friend, he doesn't think he has the skill to help. He demands that Watson go and beg a Mr. Culverton Smith- not a doctor but someone who knows more than anyone about this specific disease- to come to his aid. 
"Plead with him, Watson. There is no good feeling between us. His nephew, Watson- I had suspicions of foul play and I allowed him to see it. The boy died horribly. He has a grudge against me. You will soften him, Watson. Beg him, pray him, get him here by any means. He can save me- only he!"

You can do it, Watson! 

"You wont fail me. You never did fail me." 

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I missed this when it was actually published, but it came up on my twitter feed this morning - Sherlock Holmes in infographics & charts.

Link to full article here.

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. 

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy- including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets- and the truth about her own family- before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.

I just finished part one, and I'm enjoying this story a lot. The writing style is simple but pretty, and the story moves along at a good pace. I suppose some people would be annoyed that the language is somewhat too modern to be accurate to the 1890's, but I'm fine with it. The author does an excellent job of putting you in the time and place without beating you over the head with details or giving you an unnecessary history lesson. Every piece of knowledge gained is helpful to your enjoyment of the story. I'm also really enjoying the accuracy of the descriptions of Chinese religious ceremonies and customs- I took a class on Chinese Religions when I was at the university and it's a really great way to refresh my memory. 
I like the main character a lot, even though it's a rather understated portrait. Li Lan is honest and relatable, and she is influenced both by her father's firm belief in logic and Amah, her superstitious nurse. Her character is also very realistic- being partially raised by a scholar, she's been given more education than the average woman and she questions the order of society, but she knows there is little she can do to change it. Her steps to take charge of her own life seem small, but they're massively important and she takes them with a modern sense of self-preservation. She wants to marry someone that she actually loves and respects, someone who will love and respect her- but she also wants to take care of her family, and she is determined to figure out a way to do both. She is very clever and down to earth, and I liked her skeptical comment on the large amounts of hell money that people burn for the dead: 
"Hell must surely have seen inflation, given the recklessly high amounts of currency that were regularly burned. What of the poor ghosts who had died long before such large notes were printed?" 
I think the idea for this story is amazing- it's a very strange custom based in reality, so it's both an interesting study of culture and a beautifully haunting story. I want to write more about it, but I'm having a hard time getting in the zone today so I'm just going to pull some passages/sentences that I really liked to wrap this up: 

"The hope that rose in my throat almost choked me." 
-I really liked this line because I've felt that feeling before. Especially when it comes to love, hope can save you or kill you, and sometimes it feels like a bit of both. 

"There was an ominous heaviness, like the air roiling before a thunderstorm."

"The hours, days, and years that had bled away in his opium haze demanded a payment from my future." 
-I just really liked the language of this sentence... bleeding time demanding retribution...

"I remembered copying a passage from Zhuang-Zi's dream of a butterfly. Zhuang-Zi, a Taoist sage, woke up from sleep and said that he didn't know whether he was a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly who dreamed he was a man. Father had a rather lofty interpretation of Zhuang-Zi, preferring to concentrate on his philosophical ideas of man's place in the universe rather than the literal Taoist beliefs in immortality, shape-changing, and magic potions. He complained that the common people had corrupted these existential musings into all sorts of folk religion and mumbo jumbo. As a result I had never paid too much attention to their beliefs. Perhaps I should have." 

-I agree with her dad.

I'll probably write more in detail about this one when I finish it, because I've been leaving little pencil stars and notes in the margins. I feel like I need to go way more into the whole spirit world thing, but my brain's just not working as well as I'd like it to right now. 

Happy Friday, booknerds! 
xoLuna

I never win things! The book gods are smiling upon me this week. Check it out:

Ahhhh I'm literally squealing with excitement!

When the oil lamp was blown out, the moonlight slowly strengthened until the room was filled with a pale, cold radiance. The Chinese considered the moon to be yin, feminine and full of negative energy, as opposed to the sun that was yang and exemplified masculinity. I liked the moon, with its soft silver beams. It was at once elusive and filled with trickery, so that lost objects that had rolled into the crevices of a room were rarely found, and books read in its light seemed to contain all sorts of fanciful stories that were never there the next morning. 

[The atmosphere of this book is beautiful and ethereal. It makes me wish I was back home reading on the porch after a late afternoon storm, the frogs just coming out to croak at the approaching evening...] 

It's hard for me to rate comics since I'm only just now getting into them, so I'm going to make this really quick. I wanted to share this because I really liked the art style and the villains, and that's why I ended up deciding on 4 stars instead of 3/3.5. 

So like I said, going into this not knowing much about the original comics, I had few expectations. I ended up being pretty pleased- I like Batgirl as a person, though sometimes I felt like she was a tad melodramatic- but then again all superheros are, so I don't even think I can say anything about that. I felt like her inner dialogue/snappy comments could be better- that was part of what made me want to rate it lower. But it was entertaining, it wasn't sexist, and the art style kept my eyes glued to the page, which is all I was really looking for. I liked Mirror as a villain and thought his story was heartbreakingly perfect. I really wish that they had spent more time on Gretel, though. After hearing her story I wanted her and Batgirl to have more interaction. Batgirl seems genuinely empathetic toward her; it seems like she could be a significant character in Batgirl's life. Maybe they meet again in future issues- I hope so. 

The last thing I'll mention is that I loved the full page drawings. I want all the posters.

So to wrap things up, I think it could be better as far as the dialogue goes, but overall I thought the story itself held up. The villains were interesting and the art was amazing, so 4 stars it is. 

-dreaming of kicking ass, 
xoLuna

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So, you guys might perhaps be aware that I'm a pretty big fan of Mr. Holmes. :] A second stab at the stories alongside watching BBC's Sherlock led to a bit of an obsession with his adventures as well as his method of thinking, which led me to purchase Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova. This book is incredibly fascinating- it shows that thinking (somewhat) like Holmes is within the realm of possibility, but beyond that it explains how normal human beings can benefit from his methods in everyday life. 

"Deduction" as Sherlock practices it, is actually really good brain exercise. It can be helpful when looking for jobs, meeting new people, or assessing an unfamiliar situation. A lot of Konnikova's advice also seems like it would be helpful for those struggling with ADD. The whole idea behind the book is to "learn to pay attention better"-- to not let your mind get clogged with all the distractions of our modern world.

While reading Mastermind, I began scouring the internet for related information on "the art of deduction", and I found a lot of helpful stuff. I've been meaning to keep up my 'Sherlocking' posts, but moving across the country kind of got in the way- it takes a lot of mental energy to practice deduction and write blogs about it. :] Currently, my boyfriend has the book on tour with him, so it'll be a month or so before I can continue. So, this isn't a review. BUT I did make these really cool posts (or at least I think they're really cool) on my tumblr and I wanted to share them. They sum up the basics of 'Sherlocking' and most of what I have learned (and retained) so far. They look way better on my tumblr, so I'm just going to post the links: 

'Sherlocking' - The Basics pt. 1

'Sherlocking' - The Basics pt. 2

Even if you're not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, this stuff is pretty neat! Within the posts are links, those lead to a reference page (sidebar link #5). I'm working on getting it more organized than that but it's hard. I'm proud of what I have so far, though! 

Thanks for reading, guys. 
xoLuna

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"So where is this all going?" I asked. I tried not to sound exasperated. 

Answer: nowhere fast. 

Every time I thought things were going to pick up and actually GO somewhere, we ended up right back in the same place. I feel like every chapter repeated the same thing, from the view of a different vampire:
 
1. Where are the elders? Why is everybody hiding from each other? 
2. (Lestat) What is that Voice that's in my head?
3. Are we going to suddenly catch on fire?!
4. Boy, you know what was great? Those other Vampire Chronicles. They were so poetic and philosophical. They changed everything! (Yes, all the vampires talk about how awesome and beautiful the books are... which is true but also weird. It's basically like she's reminding you "HEY, remember what a great writer I was? Ignore that you're bored to death by this and remember The Vampire Lestat.") 
5. Lestat is the best, Lestat is amazing, where is he? 
6. I have an iPhone!
7. What is this science you speak of, for some reason I just can't understand it! 

Those last two annoyed me a lot. Half the time I felt like I was in an ad for the new Apple products. The science thing was the biggest bullshit though. I mentioned this in my first post when I first started reading- for some reason, a lot of the older vampires just can not wrap their brains around modern science, and Lestat says that he would constantly "forget how to use the computer". The explanation is given early on that vampires can't retain knowledge that wasn't available for comprehension when they were made. Which is RIDICULOUS. In chapter 9, the vampire Gregory talks about being taught by another vampire, Flavius, after he was made. He teaches him about "whole histories of peoples of the Earth he'd never known or seen"... I would argue that a totally unfamiliar culture, for example Japan, would count as "knowledge that wasn't available for comprehension" for someone from Ancient Egypt. No one else in Ancient Egypt knew about the peoples of other lands, so technically he, as a vampire, shouldn't be able to retain that information. And say that counts, because it's not "new" knowledge, it's just unfamiliar. Fine. What about all the scientific advancements that have occurred since the times of Ancient Egypt? Gregory can't comprehend what gravity is, or how electric light is made? Come on. 

What I will say is that there were some points in Gregory's story that gave me a little bit of hope for the rest of the novel. I liked the way he talked about anything past Ancient Egypt being so ridiculously advanced- it was a good way to remind us not to take for granted the miracles of modern life, and to Gregory "modern life" started in Ancient Rome. But I didn't want to wade through another chapter of some unfamiliar vampire's story (probably ending with 'where are the elders, I love Lestat' like all the other ones) to get to more of "What's that Voice!?" (yeah I flipped ahead a little bit).
I could get more detailed about the tiny bits here and there I liked, but they'll be countered immediately by the bits that ruined it, so screw it.

As an Anne Rice fan I'm going to say don't bother with this one. Maybe it's just bad timing and if I had more patience I would like it a little better... but I think maybe in her old age, Anne Rice has fallen victim to mediocrity. Be happy with the Vampire Chronicles you have and go pick up The Witching Hour if you haven't already. 

-Sorry about spilling that truth tea,
xoLuna

Thought I'd share my visions of Los Angeles with you guys. I've been having a good time taking pictures recently. I'll just post a few or one at a time here and there.

[instagram: @beat_magic]

A nice shady spot near a friend's apartment in Hollywood.

Graffiti near Runyon Canyon.

An apartment on the side of a hill behind the Magic Castle Hotel.

Alright Anne Rice, I've given you almost 200 pages to hook me and I can't believe I'm saying this, but you've failed. Maybe this book will become enjoyable at some point but I don't have time to wait around and find out.
My thoughts on Prince Lestat are summed up quite well at 1:53 in this episode of Home Movies (it should link right to 1:53).

I don't know if anyone else watches Home Movies but it's one of my very favorite shows, it used to come on adult swim. I swear, this quote is the very first thing that popped into my head when thinking about this book. I'll probably do a more detailed post tomorrow, but maybe not. I already feel like I've wasted so much reading time on this thing. 

Been staying up 'til 4am so I suppose it makes sense. Today I have to run by the library and print my transcripts and then head over to the college and sign up for whatever I can still sign up for! I really really hope I can get 12 hours of things I actually need... we shall see. 
I'm going to bring Prince Lestat with me and see if I can get any farther with that... 
and since I'm going to be in a library I'm probably going to come back with more books. 

How's everyone's Monday going?
Also, how many of you live on the other side of the world and how many are just nightowls? I seem to get most of my notifications while I'm sleeping, so I was just wondering. I know some of you are from Australia, which is rad! I love meeting people who aren't from America. 

This American requires much more coffee and some morning (ahem, afternoon) chill time before facing the busy streets of Los Angeles. 
xoLuna

[instagram: @beat_magic]

So I'm not sure how many of you have already heard of this, but I only found out about it a week or so ago, and I can't stop thinking about it. This video sums up the whole story very well (it's not really 'graphic' in a visual sense but the story is pretty disturbing and the security video of her in the elevator will give you goosebumps).
Here's a quick overview:
The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is infamous for being sketchy- Richard Ramirez (the 80's serial killer also known as the 'Night Stalker') stayed there while committing many of his crimes and there have been a large number of suicides and generally awful things like rape and murder due to the unusual clientele. However, since it's cheap (apparently anyway, the inside looks pretty nice these days from the pictures I saw, so maybe they made an attempt to be less awful... and failed) I'm sure that in recent years it's gotten a lot of customers like Elisa Lam- college students looking for an adventure in Los Angeles who need to stay at the cheapest place they can find. I think anyone would be a little apprehensive about the other people staying in this notorious hotel, had they heard of its reputation... but I don't think any of us, regardless of what we had heard, would expect a story this grotesque to unfold. 
Toward beginning of February 2013, Elisa Lam went missing after having a very strange experience in the elevator of the Cecil Hotel. In the security video you can see her talking and gesturing to what appears to be no one, or perhaps someone far down the hall. She runs into the elevator to hide a few times, and looks truly scared. The elevator itself seems to not be functioning correctly- she pushes the buttons and presses herself against the wall waiting for the doors to close and they do not. After going in and out of the elevator a few times, she gives up, leaves the elevator, and the doors immediately close after she walks away. On February 19th, after the hotel received multiple complaints about the water occasionally coming out black and tasting "sickly sweet", Elisa Lam's body was found in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel.
Now, I'm not a person who believes in the supernatural (though I do love reading/watching shows about it) but I'm having a pretty hard time coming up with an explanation for what happened to this poor girl. 
Unless there's a modern day Sherlock out there, I doubt we'll ever know for sure. 

Boyfriend's leaving tonight for a 4 week tour with the band he's in so I probably wont be on here very much today and maybe not tomorrow... 
Have a good weekend, everyone! 
xoLuna