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Earlier today, I finished Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I'd been spoiled for it, if I'd known going in what was going to be happening -- mostly because once I'd finished it, a lot of things that had really irritated me about it fell into place, and those irritations actually changed into things I really liked! Maybe if I were more familiar with the author (or had trusted the author more), I wouldn't have felt that way during my reading, but... eh.

(I deliberately spoil myself for things these days -- like, for example, The Avengers. Honestly, had I not read all about what happened in that movie, had I not been prepared for a couple of the crappiest bits, I more than likely would have walked out during that Loki/Natasha scene and not bothered to ever watch the rest.)

Anyway, it was overall really enjoyable, and I definitely recommend it to people who like spies, WWII, female friendships, women being kickass, and also epistolary novels, since the entire thing is written in letters and diaries.

Next up: I am about to leave on a week-long roadtrip -- a friend of mine and I are going to be following Empires around for five shows. First Pittsburgh, then VA, then NYC, then CT, then Philly, and I'll get back to New York on Monday. We plan to meet up with various friends in each city, and I plan to drink a lot of coffee.

(If you've never listened to Empires, definitely I suggest clicking through to their website and checking them out. They have a bunch of stuff available for free to stream and download. I have described them several times as the drunk lovechild of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks, and thus far other people seem to generally agree with that assessment. They are amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing live, too.)

So, in anticipation of a lot of sitting around in venues and napping in parking lots, I've pre-loaded my e-reader with a bunch of the Kate Shugak books by Dana Stabenow, starting with A Cold Day for Murder, which is currently available for free for Kindles. I'm really looking forward to reading the first few, although I hear the quality really drops off in the later ones. To be fair, though, I can't think of any popular, long-running series that doesn't suffer from that, which is depressing as hell.

I also grabbed Playing With Prudence by Rachel Randall, which I read when it came out, and am definitely ready to read again. I love Rachel's style and voice.
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Entertainment Weekly's review of Adam Lambert's new album reminded me of why I canceled my subscription (uh, about a million years ago!) in the first place: their reviews are out of touch. At least, they're out of touch with me -- their reviews almost never jived with my personal experiences and apparently that's still the case.

Nevertheless, the tongue in cheek "hipster homophobia" use of gay stereotypes (and lack of fact-checking, sheesh!!) really doesn't sit well with me, so I wrote a note. Some people wrote much longer screeds (I was linked to this one this morning, which is great and eloquent; ETA: and this one by [twitter.com profile] blakkrrox), but I kept mine short.

Here's what I wrote; you're welcome to copy and paste and send to EW with your own name attached if you want.

I am writing in response to Melissa Maerz's review of Adam Lambert's new album, Trespassing.

The tongue in cheek use of gay stereotypes in Melissa Maerz's review of Adam Lambert's new album is absolutely horrifying. Gay stereotypes are just homophobia in sunglasses; they are hurtful, they are wrong, and I am appalled that EW would allow them to appear. Whatever Melissa Maerz thinks of Adam Lambert's album and career (and I do wish the facts had not been plainly wrong, eg given the *lack* of gender-neutral pronouns in songs like "Fever" and the fact that "Outlaws of Love" is about much much more than gay marriage), surely those opinions could have been expressed without displaying what comes across as anti-gay sentiment.

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anna genoese

November 2015

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