Buffy and the Literary Establishment: Buffy and the Heroine's Journey

Librarything sent me an Early Reviewer copy of Buffy and The Heroine's Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen One, by Valerie Estelle Frankel, but unfortunately it got buried under my Summer Reading Program and I've only just finished. I always like reading critical essays on Buffy; it combines the halcyon days of college English class essays with the pop culture phenomenon of a Whedon epic. Frankel's book does a good job of taking both these communities seriously.

The chapters do a good job of explaining the classic steps of the Heroine's Journey, one that differs in many respects from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, with an eye to the different expectations for a woman. I wish it spent more time locating these expectations in specific cultures rather than assuming that these definitions of feminine and masculine strengths and weaknesses were universal. Also, the Buffy story spans a movie, seven years of television (plus a spin-off) and then a year of comics, so that I never worried about how Frankel would find an example to support almost any thesis she wanted to defend. So the essays had the feeling of undergraduate strength rather than completely persuasive texts. 

I appreciated Frankel's clear language and limited use of academic jargon. It's a book I'll give to my eighth grader if he wants to get a sense of what his essays should start looking like, and since he's a Buffy fan, he'll probably appreciate these examples more than ones on Pride and Prejudice or Moby Dick.

New Library Year

I returned a satisfyingly heavy pile of books today, although I admit one was unread. I'm getting back into balance after this summer's forced march through a large chunk of my unread books, discovering that I'm not very good at reading what I've ordered myself to read, but that I'm usually right and should just read them.

I came home with five seven books. (I almost forgot about the two that my eighth grader absconded with, to my warm fuzzy joy.)

• Eternal Pleasure, Nina Bangs. The Vaginal Fantasy alternate pick, apparently about men who transform into dinosaurs and the women who love them. X says that if I like it he'll try it.
• Oracle's Moon, Thea Harrison. I think this was last month's alternate pick.
• Super Human, Michael Carroll. The next book in the Best of the Best list.
• Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters,  Lenore Look. Part of my Reading My Library Quest, which had been mostly suspended over the summer.
• Commander Perry In the Land of the Shogun, Rhoda Blumberg. I think this is the last of Perrin's suggestions.
• Foiled, Jane Yolen. From my TBR list. Already confiscated by X.
• Zita the Space Girl, Ben Hatke. The next Cybils book. Also confiscated. 

I also got two CDs, one by Robyn and one I forget.

This left me with 38 items out on my card, WAY under my age, so I can go buy a book if I want. In fact, I did -- Gone, by Michael Grant, although X probably will read it first. But I'd still like to get that number down into the twenties.

I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where all the library addicts compare their treasures.

Library Confessions

Again this week I returned two books unread, and now I have about five to finish before next week. Also, one is due but I'm only 100 pages from the end, so I'll sneak it in tomorrow. Whew!

I talked my sons into accompanying me to the library, but then they said they only meant into the parking lot, so I went on my own. I had two books on hold (both titles from Perrin's A Child's Delight, a collection of essays about overlooked children's books), but since I was on my own I paused to see if any of the Quick Pick books were from states missing from my read-across-America challenge.

Eight books later they sent a search party in for me.

I came home with ten books, although one was bought from the library sale table:

• The Rat-Catcher's Daughter, Laurence Housman. Perrin recommends the other brother.
• The Vision of Stephen, Lolah Burford. Another rec.
• Hiss of Death, by Rita Mae Brown. Takes place in Virginia.
• Hot Water, Erin Brockovich. South Carolina.
• Hell Is Empty, Craig Johnson. Wyoming
• Chihuahua of the Baskervilles, Esri Allbritten. Colorado.
• Wild Wild Death, Casey Daniels. New Mexico.
• Rock Bottom, Erin Brockovich. West Virginia.
• The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Not southern after all, but maybe a literary fiction?
• All Seeing Eye, Rob Thurman. Looked like fun, although I'm not sure where it's set. Hey, I could get lucky!

I also got three CDs, chosen in haste without looking at the covers. In the car I discovered that we'll be listening to Bruce Springsteen, the soundtrack to Rio, and something called The Healing Harp. One of these will not be popular.

This left me with 37 items out on my card, under my age but still not very good. I'd really like to bring that number down to the 20's. I'm avoiding the hot picks table for a while, even if they have a rare state. Unless it's Rhode Island, which is really hard.

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

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Apparently, if I skip one day, then I skip them all. And then I stop posting altogether.

I did manage to start a book a day during my summer vacation, but I didn't finish them all. Actually, I probably did finish a book a day, but since I also kept reading other things, they weren't all from my unread bookcase. And often I finished late enough that I didn't take extra time to post.

But I do like my little blog, so I'm going to try to start updating again. To clear my head, I'm starting off with all the summer books I read without telling the world:

• North Winds Blow Free, Elizabeth Howard.
• Fossil Identifier, S. Weidensaul.
• Penny Goes to Camp, C. Haywood.
• The Other Side of Truth, Beverley Naidoo.
• Dr. Dolittle's Zoo, Hugh Lofting.
• Farewell To Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
• The Trouble With Magic, Ruth Chew
• Friends Around the World, Clara Baker.
• Return From Witch Mountain, Alexander Key
• Black and Blue Magic, Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
• The Best Halloween Ever, Barbara Robinson.
• Ellen Tibbitts, Beverly Cleary.
• Magic Tree Hous Fact Tracker #1: Dinosaurs, Will Osborne.
• The Clue of the Dancing Puppet, Carolyn Keene.
• Lawn Boy Returns, Gary Paulsen.
• The Dragon of Lonely Island, Rebecca Rupp.
• Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School, Louis Sachar.
• The Ghost Belonged to Me, Richard Peck.
• Three Stuffed Owls, Keith Robertson.
• Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan.
• The Cow-Tail Switch, Harold Courlander.
• Turn Homeward, Hannalee, Patricia Beatty.
• United Tates of America, Paula Danzinger.
• Taken At the Flood, Ken Catran.
• The Woodshed Mystery, Gertrude Warner.

The books I started but haven't actually finished yet are:

• Tales From Silver Lands, Charles Finger
• Pinky Pye, Eleanor Estes.
• Rufus M., Eleanor Estes.
• The Tunnel of Hugsy Good, Eleanor Estes.
• Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Block.
• Bob, Son of Battle, Alfred Ollivant.
• Tricksters, Margaret Mahy.
• Tessie, Jesse Jackson.
• Puddleby Adventures, Hugh Lofting.
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher.
• The Eye of the Warlock, P.W. Catanese.
• Redskin and Cowboy, G. A. Henty.

Summer Closes Down

Summer is teetering on the edge of over (school starts back up a week from tomorrow), and although I didn't get much done I did enjoy each day. I guess I'm just the unambitious type, at least during the summer.

I also managed to START a book every day, even if I didn't keep up with finishing them all. I guess I can do that over the fall. And it turns out that once I let myself skip one blogging day, I let myself skip ALL of them. Oh well!

Anyway, here's what I've been reading for most of August:

• Unlocked, Courtney Milan. (NOOK) Romances by an author I just discovered.
• Unraveled, Courtney Milan. (NOOK). See above.
• Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School, Louis Sacher. Summer reading book.
• The Dragon of Lonely Island, Rebecca Rupp. Summer reading book.
• Proof By Seduction, Courtney Milan. (NOOK). See above. Laughing out loud in the first chapter was a good sign.
• Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick. (Cybils). Interesting if coincidental.
• Lawn Boy Returns, Gary Paulsen. Summer reading.
• The Clue of the Dancing Puppet, Carolyn Keene. Summer reading.
• Dinosaurs: Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker #1, Will Osbourne, Salvadore Murdocca. Summer reading.
• Okay For Now (audio), Gary B. Schmidt. Best of the Best list. This turned out to be highly popular with almost everyone, even visitors who only heard an hour or so.
• Home For a Spell, Madelyn Alt. Takes place in Indiana, woot!
• Kiss the Dead, Laurell K. Hamilton. Actually had plot, as well as heaps of goofiness. And sex.
• Unraveling Freedom, Anne Bausum. (Cybils). Nonfiction that I couldn't get the boys to read.
• Ellen Tibbits, Beverly Cleary. Summer reading.
• No Longer a Gentleman, Mary Jo Putney. (NOOK). I like this series.
• The Best Halloween Ever, Barbara Robinson. Summer reading.
• Black and Blue Magic, Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Summer reading.
• Return From Witch Mountain, Alexander Key. Summer reading.
• Friends Around the World, Edna Baker. Summer reading.
• Bitterblue, Kristen Cashore. I liked it.
• The Ultimates Vol 1: Super-Human, Mark Millar. Comic book.
• The Trouble With Magic, Ruth Chew. Summer reading.
• I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga. Grisly YA.
• Graceling, Kristen Cashore. For book club.

What am I currently reading? About twenty kidlit summer reading books that didn't get finished on their allotted day, as well as a bagful of other books. Here is the full list, although some of them are more promises than books I've pushed bookmarks ahead in recently:

• Trial By Desire, Courtney Milan. NOOK. Library digital book.
• Dragon Ship, Lee & Miller. NOOK. Personal digital book.
• The Snow Pony, Alison Lester. RML book.
• A Child's Delight. Noel Perrin. From my TBR list.
• Fire, Kristen Cashore. Rereading after Bitterblue.
• The Ghost Belonged to Me, Robert Peck. Today's summer reading. I'll probably finish it tonight.
• Tales From Silver Lands, Charles Finger. Yesterday's summer reading. Short stories that I prefer to read a few at a time.
• Pinky Pye, Eleanor Estes. Unfinished summer reading. I like Estes, but I have a surfeit right now.
• Rufus M., Eleanor Estes. Unfinished summer reading. See above.
• The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Unfinished summer reading. See above. This is not my favorite.
• Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Black. Unfinished summer reading. I prefer Black's family stories.
• Bob, Son of Battle, Alfred Ollivant. Unfinished summer reading. Dogs and dialect -- I'm too old for this.
• The Tricksters, Margaret Mahy. Unfinished summer reading. I'm very sad that she recently died.
• Tessie, Jesse Jackson. Unfinished summer reading. The author is not that Jackson.
• Dr Doolittle's Puddleby Adventures, Hugh Lofting. Unfinished summer reading.
• Redskin and Cowboy, G. A. Henty. Unfinished summer reading.
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher. Unfinished summer reading. I lost it and then found it again.
• The Eye of the Warlock, P.W. Catanese. Unfinished summer reading.
• Team Human, Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier. I bought this and I'm liking it, but it gets pushed back by the library books that are due. And the summer reading thing.
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor. I thought it was due back so I started reading it, but then I renewed it and I had to read the stuff that really was due. Soon it will rise to the top again.
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Online book club book. I'm late, but I renewed it. Twice.
• Buffy and the Heroine's Journey, Valerie Frankel. Present from librarything early readers.
• The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller. I found it! I should finish it.
• Phoenix In Flight, Sherwood Smith. NOOK. Space opera.
• The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton. Reward book. I haven't earned many rewards lately.
• Close Range, Annie Proulx. Reward book. See above.
• Knight of a Trillion Stars, Dara Joy. Reward book. See above.
• The Catholic Church in the Modern World, E.E.Y. Hales. Reward book. See above.
• Honored Enemy, Raymond Feist. Reward book.
• Smart But Scattered, Peg Dawson. Reward book.

What will I read next? I'm still pulling from my reservoir of purchased-but-unread books. After I finish those, finish some of the books above, especially Kushiel's Dart which is due on Thursday.

Challenges:

1. Cybils: 64/73. I finished off Nonfiction, although I haven't reviewed them all. 
2. Global Reading Challenge: 13/21. Well, I'm currently reading books in both South America and Australia. So there is hope.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  32/50.  Got Indiana. Reading a Missouri. Need New Hampshire.
4. Science Book Challenge: 2.1415/3.14159. I should count the fossil book from July.
5. Reading My Library:  Pausing to get my library exposure under control.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 10/12. Does Nancy Drew count as a classic? I didn't think so...
7. Best of the Best: 30/25. No rush anymore, but I'm still dipping into the lists.
8. Summer Reading Goal: I'm four many books behind. But I don't mind reading dozens of books at once, so I'll keep starting a book a day throughout the summer, and then settle down to finishing everything in the fall.

Heat Wave!

Summer has descended with a fury, and I'm about all done with vacations. I've also fallen a bit behind in my book-a-day schedule, as well as horribly behind on posting them. One leak and the whole wall crumbles.

So this is my pledge to myself to get back on track, and my reminder of what I've read in July.

I'll put it on Book Journey's weekly round-up of what everyone has read, is reading, and will read. Most of my selections are children's books, since that is the shelf on my unread-bookcase that I'm concentrating on, but I manage to read one or two other books as well. But it means I'll go add myself to Teach Mentor Texts as well, since they concentrate on kid books.

• 
  
• Farewell to Manzanar
• Dr. Dolittle's Zoo
• The Other Side of Truth
• Penny Goes to Camp
• Fossil Identifier
• North Winds Blow Free

Earlier in July I also read:

• Seven Day Magic
• The Cheshire Cheese Cat
• Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition
• Ring of Solomon
• Some Assembly Required
• The Case of the Deadly Desperados
• Parrot in the Oven: mi vida
• The Changeling Sea
• Dragonwings
• Delusions of Gender
• I Was a Rat!
• Freddy and the Baseball Team From Mars
• The Moonlight Man
• Meet Samantha
• The Emerald City of Oz
• The Magic Meadow
• Carnelians
• The Slave Dancer
• Tempting Fate
• The Greek Gods
• The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
• The Secret of the Indian
• The Secret Prince
• The Family From One End Street
• The Stranger Next Door
• Roscoe's Leap

You can see where I fell behind, because the reviews stop dead. I haven't stopped reading, but I haven't taken time on this blog because of the weight of the unfinished books. I clearly have to deal with some issues here. (All the unreviewed books in the middle are not part of the Summer Reading Goal.)

What am I currently reading? I left some in-progress books at home during my gallivanting, and I cherry picked from my options to things I thought I'd enjoy.

• The Sharing Knife, Lois Bujold. I skipped my way through a reread of these four books. Mostly backwards.
• Dr Doolittle's Puddleby Adventures, Hugh Lofting. Yesterday's book.
• Redskin and Cowboy, G. A. Henty. I think I need a running start for this one, so I left the book mark in. I need to read it to catch up the days I missed.
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor. I thought it was due back so I started reading it, but then I renewed it and I had to read the stuff that really was due.
• Graceling, Kristin Cashore. For my book club. (reread)
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher. A book from my shelves that I misplaced. Now I found it again.
• The Eye of the Warlock, P.W. Catanese. Another book from my shelves I didn't finish on time.
• Team Human, Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier. I'm liking it, but it gets pushed back by the books that are due.
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Online book club book. I'm late, but I renewed it.
• Buffy and the Heroine's Journey, Valerie Frankel. Present from librarything early readers.
• The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller. I found it! I should finish it.
• A few other things that I haven't been able to pick up for a few weeks.

What will I read next? I'm still pulling from my reservoir of purchased-but-unread books. After I finish those, I want to read I Hunt Killers and finish some of the books above. And I have Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean on my NOOK (because of Felicia Day's book club reading it) that I'd like to look at before it evaporates.

Challenges:

1. Cybils: 62/73. I finished off Middle Grade Fantasy, although I haven't reviewed them all.
2. Global Reading Challenge: 13/21. Argh! I read a book in Africa, but it repeated a country. And I started a book that I thought was in South America, but it's clearly a North American island. Humph. I returned that disappointment to the library. My next tropical island that I thought was either South America, or failing that, Africa, is actually off the Indian coast. I don't thin it even counts for Oceanea.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  31/50.  Reviews are overrated. Michigan for the win! And I have a book set in Indiana in hand!
4. Science Book Challenge: 2.141/3.14159. Delusions of Gender does qualify, although I should review it.
5. Reading My Library:  Pausing to get my library exposure under control.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 10/12. No change.
7. Best of the Best: 29/25. No rush anymore, but I'm still dipping into the lists.
8. Summer Reading Goal: I'm four books behind, I think, but I hope to catch up. Harder than expected, but also more fun.

Library trip!

This week I had to return several books unread, mainly because I spent too much time having fun on vacation and not enough time reading the stuff that was absolutely positively due!  So I'm trying not to check out more until I'm all caught up, but the library thought one of my holds was ready (it wasn't) and then they dangled some stuff in front of me.

I came home with three books, although one was bought from the library sale table:

• Casket of Souls, Lynn Flewelling. On my TBR list, and on the tempt-me shelves.
• On the Island, Tracey Garvis Graves. I think this one takes place in South America. Wait, no, the Maldives -- is that Africa (frantic map checking). Can I count it for Oceanea?
• Steal the Dragon, Patricia Briggs. A lot of her books are comfort reads for me.

I also got three CDs, but I forget what they are since I left them in the car.

This left me with 33 items out on my card, WAY under my age, so I can go buy a book if I want. I think I'll hoard this prize until I see something I really really want.

I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where all the library addicts compare their treasures.