The holidays are fast approaching, whether we want them to or not!
Gift giving has always been a point of mild anxiety for me because I can be super particular about the gifts I get for people. They have to be just right. Since knowing Tim, my stress level about Christmas and birthdays has gone way up from pure desire to please. I've been lucky though. My husband is really pretty easy to shop for. He actually wants things and talks about them so all I have to do is pay attention and mentally note anything he seems really interested in. This has made things easier for me, whereas he's stuck getting presents for the girl-who-doesn't-ever-voice-a-preference-for-anything.
One problem I've started running into, though, is that when Tim wants something, or gets excited about a game, he wants it now so I get to play a delicate game of sounding interested when he talks about it but not too interested otherwise he'll get it before Christmas. This issue has come up again this year as there are a few games coming out next year that he's geeking out over. I had fully intended on surprising him with one for Christmas but I finally caved last night when he asked, for the hundreth time - joking but not, if I was okay with him pre-ordering it. Sigh. One Christmas option down, hopefully I can hang on to the other ideas I have, haha.
In other news, I managed to sneak another book in amid my Wheel of Time marathon. I borrowed River Secrets from my sister-in-law's friend [practically forced to since she saw me ogling her bookshelves] as I lost my university library privileges before I could get my hands on the third book of this wonderful series. Anyone who's read this blog before knows that I am a huge Shannon Hale fan. I keep finding more and more things to admire about her work and I hope that doesn't end soon.
I was a little hesitant to start River Secrets as I had enjoyed but didn't love Enna Burning and I was somewhat worried that the series would continue downhill for me. I shouldn't have worried. River Secrets is probably my favorite book in the series now. This book made me laugh out loud more times than I can remember from pure humor and witty surprise. Hale's whimsical and quirky narration is a strong presence and makes what could have been an average story wonderful to read. Razo wasn't a character I really attached to in the first two books but I was excited to see how much he grew on me and quickly became my favorite character out of the bunch.
There have been a lot of articles and blogs talking about the female stereotypes in literature and I have no qualms with the issues they raise, for the most part they are completely valid, but I think that male characters suffer from their own gender stereotypes pretty frequently. I think the main reason the majority of my book collection is composed of heroines instead of heroes is because I get tired of these overworked molds - the hero who is perfect in every virtue, especially humility and a lack of desire for personal glory - the anti-hero who broods over everything and doesn't want to take responsibility but suddenly discovers that he's actually a wonderful person - the macho hero who thinks only in terms of physical force to get things done but it's okay because it's not malicious and it's all in the name of justice! There are many many others but we see them over and over again in literature. This doesn't necessarily mean they're bad. They all have their place but I get tired of them and this is why Razo was so fascinating to me.
A lot of things automatically set Razo apart from major male stereotypes. The most noticeable is his stature, or lack thereof. Heroes in this genre tend toward the large and powerful type or the strong silent type. Razo defies both categories with his good-humored, self-depreciating approach to his size as well as his constant stream of random dialogue and jokes. He's a class clown minus obnoxious shows of bravado. Razo does attempt bravado at times but his personality and lack of experience with tact and women always end up making the situation relatably and humorously awkward. Razo is the kind of character you want to like, that you cheer for. He's much more relatable in his imperfections than other character types and his part in the plot plays on the fact that he's not who you would pick out to be a leader or a hero. All in all, Razo was a refreshing hero and one that I am eager to add to my bookshelves. Maybe I should just give Tim my Amazon wish list...
Last bit for today: if you haven't seen Despicable Me 2, you definitely should. Tim and I made a random date night of going to see it in the Dollar Theatre yesterday and we were not disappointed. Good clean laughs abound and my favorites came from Margo's crush on a charming, dark, exotic, skater/emo boy which completely encapsulated the kinds of infatuations that come with young adolescence. I completely lost it at one point when Margo, totally smitten, tells him "you're so complicated." Honestly, that line keeps popping into my head and I crack up every time because it is so perfect!
No comments:
Post a Comment