then there are blackbirds

In the hopes that upping my fannish productivity will up my productivity in other arenas today, here is my quick review of Those Pricey Thakur Girls for deepad's Anuja Chauhan reading club!

Set in 1980s Delhi, the novel primarily revolves around Debjani Thakur (secretly her father's favorite of his five alphabetically-named daughters), a brand-new English newsreader at DD who keeps clashing with investigative journalist Dylan Singh Shekhawat. While Dylan's stubborn unwillingness to uphold "state-sponsored propaganda" quickly gets him into hot water, it's the convoluted Thakur family dynamics that really make this book.

Unlike Chauhan's other two books, in which personal lives are swept up in larger sociopolitical currents, Those Pricey Thakur Girls weaves larger issues like the 1984 Sikh Massacre and freedom of the press into an intensely family-focused story. I personally appreciated the change, because I think family dynamics are probably Chauhan's best narrative strength. Also, there simply is no humor quite like the wacky family hijinks kind. I did have a bit of trouble with the POV shifts and the sheer size of the Thakur family/friend network at first, but as the story arcs progressed, things got less confusing.

The family drama and perspective changes do make the narrative drive in this book less direct than Battle for Bittora and The Zoya Factor; multiple perspectives obviously require multiple character arc resolutions. I found this a feature, not a bug- a thing that's annoyed me about some other romances I've read is that the main characters get together and the "side" characters... go off and something? (Who cares knows! Obviously their development is less important, whatever.) But in this story, the presence of every friend and family member seems both necessary and felt, even the ones off-screen. A key part of Dylan and Debjani's romance is getting to know each other through family and friends, which is one of those true to life processes I really appreciate reading about that I wish more romance writers would spend time on. Ahem. xD

eta; If you happen to be interested in buying/reading any of these books, there's an Anuja Chauhan box set available on the Con or Bust auction site!

--

In other fannish news, I have:
- generated a KagaNigou (still unsubmitted because I'm still in tumblr avoidance mode... >.>)
- accidentally spawned a Dragon Age/KuroBase AU-verse solely on the basis of KagaNigou crackfic premises? Oops.

Things I have yet to accomplish: EVERYTHING ELSE. /o\ And now I'll be off to get on that (hopefully)...

troisroyaumes asked for a KnB post, so here it is! I still haven't caught up though; the last ep I watched was 2x01 and I probably haven't read beyond chapter 230-something. >.>

This is yet another Fandom inkstone Has Enabled Me Into- thanks to V, I watched the first anime series and read the manga and loved them- but all my actual participation in KnB fandom to date has been instigated by troisroyaumes. GOOD JOB, GUYS, THANKS! xD

Things I love about Kuroko:

♥ TEAM! This is not surprising as it's one of my top narrative kinks, but ughhhhh the relationship dynamics are delicious delicious candy. And there's so many of them! Also, team development is something I find super interesting, both in terms of individual player growth and the way each team operates as a whole.

♥ Relatedly, the training and practice bits! Aka the main reason I love and favor Seirin and Miragen so much. I'm not really a team sports person, so it's less the actual basketball (which is kind of fudgy anyway) than it is the senpai/kouhai and coach relationships. Also, I appreciate the actual portrayal of the hard work that results in people being ~awesome~! I mean, of course I like awesome people, I just like them better when their abilities aren't being handwaved as INSTANT MAGICAL GENIUS. I also like seeing people whose hard work doesn't result in super-special skills, because the truth is that just because you work really hard at something doesn't mean you'll become the best at it. Everyone has a different level of ability and a different learning curve, and that's okay! The learning process tells you a lot about a person's character.

♥ Speaking of characters! I love the variety of personalities! Kuroko is my favorite of favorites, but I've yet to see a single character that I can't appreciate, even the ones I personally dislike (e.g. Hanamiya- sorry, I just don't like that particular brand of jerkface! Doesn't mean I can't appreciate his manipulation skills though.). This is a show where you can ship FLEETS, and I will happily ship your favored permutations of everyone/everyone as soon as you can sell me on them, lol.

I could keep babbling but I'm starting to lose my place now, so I'll leave you with this first attempt at KnB fanart: ( cockroach Kise )

♠ So apparently, after this summer's two-trips-in-a-week to Canada, I'm considering making... another two trips to Canada in the next two months? Am I secretly Canadian? A bird confusedly migrating in the wrong season/opposite direction? IDEK GUYS, WHAT IS THIS. My Toronto friends are finally coming down to visit next month, but 3 trips to 1 (and 4:1, and 5:1, and 6:1) is clearly an uneven rate of exchange!

♠ Things I need to catch up on: Kuroko and Free! I have no idea why I haven't been in the headspace for these when I enjoy them so much; I guess the wedding I went to last weekend threw me off my pace in more ways than one. I'm more caught up with Free! than I am with Kuroko though- I've watched through episode 7 and it's GREAT. :D Bracing myself for the v. shiny back inkstone informs me is in episode 8!

♠ In related news, I need to start considering my Touch Pass assignment- it's been so long since I've written fic for anything, augh. Does anyone want to talk Kuroko characters with me or throw out some random prompts so I can get my hand back in? ^^;

♠ Finally, some booklog catch-up: ( Georgette Heyer, Li-Young Lee, Amit Chaudhuri, Divergent, Hikaru no Go, Agatha Christie, Catherine Coulter )

+ The Pale Horse, Agatha Christie
+ War Dances, Sherman Alexie: I enjoyed Alexie's writing a lot, but I suspect I'm missing the point of some of these short stories? Maybe worth rereading when my brain is actually on.
+ The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood: I generally like retold myths and fairytales, but how something with so entertaining a premise can turn out so fluffily disappointing, idek. I liked the narrative voices, too! (Quick, someone point me to a fanfic that does it better. :P)
+ Postern of Fate, Agatha Christie: Usually I have little individual commentary on Agatha Christie, but this was the first book of hers that made me go meh.
+ Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer: Much more entertaining than April Lady, but didn't make me breathless with glee the way The Grand Sophy did. (I misjudged my reading order- Sophy is a high bar to set!)
+ They Came to Baghdad, Agatha Christie
+ Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer: So far it appears I enjoy Heyer best when she writes epic clashes of stubborn, ahaha. Mary Challoner vs. Vidal is hilarious!
+ Saints Astray, Jacqueline Carey: Finally picked this up! It was a fun read, but as a sequel to Santa Olivia I thought it was kind of odd? I dunno, ( spoilers ) wasn't where I thought this dystopic setup was going. I did enjoy Pilar's process of growing into herself, though.
+ Kamisama Kiss/Kamisama Hajimemashita, v. 10-13: Still ridiculous, still hilarious, Nanami and Tomoe are still my favorites.

In other news: Kuroko babble and/or prompts would still be appreciated! Or any prompts, really.

1. I FINISHED CODING THE LAST OF MY 30 TRANSCRIPTS TODAY! \o/ \o/ \o/ and also OW, I feel a return of tendonitis-ish pain thanks to all that scribbling. I imagine this is what surfacing from scuba diving must feel like, except all in my brain.

2. Oh look, a Kuroko no Basuke friending meme! Maybe I'll actually play in this one while I'm recovering from thesis immersion... or maybe not, considering how little I've been able to interact with new people from the last friending meme I played in. ;____; (Hi, new people! I swear I am reading, it's just that I am awful at remembering to comment on things.) Also I have managed zero fannish content, icons notwithstanding. Woes.

3. Jeremy Lin meets Wat Misaka- ugh, my heart. JLin, how do you do this to me, I am not even invested in basketball. (Or... non-Kuroko basketball. >.>)

4. I've been going around spamming your threads at staranise's words and deeds love meme, but I know I've probably missed a bunch. If I haven't commented, please feel free to toss links my way! Also, I just put up my thread, because it would be nice to remember the things I've done that you felt were meaningful while I'm scrambling to accomplish so much thesis else.

Guys, talk to me about your fandoms? I'm so occupied with school that I find it hard to be remotely coherent when I don't have to be, but I miss fandom talk so much. What have you been reading/watching? What are the tropes and friend/ships you love (or hate)? What makes you squee? What makes you rage? (Also, has anyone else into Kuroko no Basuke managed to solidify shipping preferences through reading fic, or is that just me? >.>)

+ Via vi: The Name and the Face by Juliana Qian

+ Via happydork: ( adorable basketball rivalry video! )

+ Via angry asian man: ( Jeremy Lin in Taipei )

+ And because I'm super belated about most things fandom these days: prompt post at kuroko_no_basket (which I've only been ogling since, er, it first went up >.>)!

» eta; Don't forget to sign up for Kaleidoscope!

Obsessive rewatching of Kuroko no Basuke has led, inevitably, to obsessive iconing of Kuroko no Basuke! Given that I just spent ~40 minutes iconing the 2ish-minute intro, this is probably the first set of many. *g*

( 32 icons, most ensemble characters )

Belated & abbreviated watchblog!

1. Snow White and the Huntsman. Dear internets, I was forewarned, and it still made even less sense than I was expecting! Totally agree with oyceter that there are about four logical movies that could have been made out of it (two of which I would actually have enjoyed watching). I should have listened to you all and not paid to see it in the theater, but at least I didn't pay full price?

2. Korra. I... keep trying and failing at coherence, but in the meantime, my general reaction:
( in macro form )

3. The Dark Knight Rises. I watched this post-dance-class, not for full price, and with my brain half off, which may have contributed to my enjoyment of the movie in addition to my complete lack of knowledge of comics-verse. ( spoilers-ish )

4. Kuroko no Basuke, for which I blame inkstone! ♥ I seriously inhaled all of the manga and anime in a day. I don't even know where to begin talking about it and also am in a state of total A:JKS:DLFHSDL:F *\o/*!!!!!!, but if you enjoy sports series and/or are a sucker for all things team like me, I recommend checking it out! Also: endless eye candy, even though there aren't a lot of female characters. >.> inkstone's promo post has video clips.