not sharing the whine with you

[rose_griffes]

I started typing THE WHINIEST POST about various Facebook-related dramas but I've chosen to spare you and lock it so that I'm the only one who can read it.

TV: I finished season one of Burn Notice, which is super enjoyable! But also very white, FYI! Lead character Michael Westen has really grown on me; I was watching almost exclusively for Fiona, the gun-happy ex-GF in the first half of the season. Michael's family has grown on me as well. So... I'm gonna keep watching.

I've rewatched a few random episodes of Community, but am finding that its appeal is greatly diminished for me. I just cannot stand Pierce. Britta is barely tolerable. Whatsisface the Ryan Seacrest knockoff: also barely tolerable. But at times the show is so genuinely clever in its parodies of common pop culture tropes that it's worth the watch. Just--not every episode.

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Books: Diana Biller's The Widow of Rose House works well--a Gilded Age paranormal romance. Sorta? I'm having trouble classifying it. But I will say: rather delightful! I am a total sucker for the romance of the grumpy (and wounded) heroine and her determined sweet and happy puppy love interest. And a compelling and interesting ghost!

Alisha Rai's Girl Gone Viral is a contemporary romance with two grumpy wounded people who also both have their sweet puppy aspect. Other than the past traumatic experiences of the leads, this is the sweetest and fluffiest romance. Definitely DO recommend.

That's a lot of romance novels, eh? Moving on, then. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II was a positive experience. I think Liza Mundy's prose is not as lyrical or compelling as some other non-fic writers, but it wasn't a drawback, either. I enjoyed it and got a lot of background history details out of it.

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder (A Countess of Harleigh Mystery Book 1) gave me some lighthearted Victorian murder. Not particularly memorable, but fun.

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Any recs for audio that is sort of interesting without being really compelling or depressing? Like... audio books or podcasts or podfic--something I could listen to while trying to sleep. Definite preference for softer feminine voices.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Can't help in the audio department, I rarely listen to it. I used to listen to James Marsters reading the Dresden books, and to be honest? That's the only audio books I've made it through - I'd let him read me to sleep, which hmmm...resulted in some interesting dreams, since they are urban fantasy novels.

Thanks for the Rec on Burn Notice. I'd watched the first three seasons when it first aired, but somehow lost track of it. Can't remember why. So I retried episode one - and realized I couldn't remember it at all. It's very entertaining. It's also very early 00s, which means it's not quite at the racially diverse stage yet. Television didn't start getting racially and gender diversified until roughly 2015 or thereabouts. Burn Notice was 2007-2013, so a little dated. God, dated. So much has changed in such a short amount of time. Keep in mind, it's also post 9/11 - so right around the time people went nuts on the CIA/Terrorist/Espionage stuff. I don't know how well it will hold up in a year or two.

Community? The only character in that which I liked was Danny Glover's character, everyone else irritated me, which was a problem. I did not like the Ryan Seacrest knock off - who was the lead or his love interest, the female lead. Also problematic.
And it was more into parody and satire - and the satire did not work for me. Add to that, I think it's a Michael Schur comedy? And I've discovered Michael Schur's brand of comedic satire doesn't quite work for me. The only one I liked and was able to watch all the way through was The Good Place.

Oh, I've started Diana Biller's The Widow of Rose House - mainly because I want a strong heroine who doesn't romanticize everything, and a ghost story from another century.
I'm looking for escapist stuff right now. ;-) (I know I should be watching and reading better stuff, but I don't want to. Maybe later.)

[elperian]

Also, I wanted to point out in Burn Notice S4 Coby Bell becomes a series regular, so the main character they add to the cast is a Black man. Psych is actually more diverse, in that it was the only cable show at the time with two MOC as leads, but it definitely stood out for that too. I really did enjoy how Burn Notice took me right back to the 00s though. Nostalgia! Kinda!

I never got into the Community hype either. I stopped...mid-S2? Thereabouts? Just didn't work for me. It's actually not a Schur show but a Dan Harmon show, however!

[shadowkat]

Okay, S4 would have been 2010 - which was about the time that television shows required more diversity in casting to stay on the air. The shift was around 2008-2010 or thereabouts.

Oh, Dan Harmon. For some reason...I thought it was Schur.

[rose_griffes]

I'm not much of a fan of Jim Butcher's works, but adding in a pleasant voice might result in a good mix of "nice to listen to" and "interesting enough without being TOO interesting". I may give it a try.

Community: I like both Troy and Abed, but Troy was definitely a more enjoyable character overall, so we match with that opinion.

Escapist stuff is my choice for the moment as well, which is pretty obvious in most of the shows and books I listed here...

[shadowkat]

I only liked the Dresden files, and only up to a certain point. He gets disappointingly chauvinistic and sexist as time travels on, also like most urban fantasy writers - he kind of loses steam after about the fifth or sixth book.

Very 90s and early 00s writer, doesn't hold up well post 2015. And the Christian mythos stuff is really bad. I do however like what he does with the Fae.

Actually Abed was the other character I liked, couldn't remember his name.
Everyone else got on my nerves, Abed did at times, too, but not as much as the others. (Troy was the only one who didn't get on my nerves - LOL!)