october media

[latespring]

Happy October, happy fall, I hope it was kind to you. I'm getting this out on time for once!

Movies

Blue Giant (2023) ★★★★★★
THIS MOVIE!!! This is a movie about jazz if you made it a sports anime. They got one of my favorite artists (Hiromi, a multi-genre piano player, she plays for one of the characters!!!) to score it, and so the soundtrack is incredible, really fitting for a movie about jazz. The themes are exactlyyyy up my alley--music and dreams and chasing something larger than yourself. I saw it after seeing Hiromi play live, and I teared up in the movie theater watching it. I'm not sure it's a spectacular movie so much as a really really good movie that plays exactly to my interests, but I loved it so much.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) ★★★★☆
I watched half of this on a plane ride and the other half on another plane ride lol. I think it's a really fun movie!!! I'm kind of biased, since I play DnD, but it was great. Chris Pine was really funny and the movie feels like it could have been plucked straight out of any campaign.

Books

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

• why I read it: I was reshelving this at work, read part of it, and ended up checking it out to read the rest lol.


• thoughts: I really liked this one! This is a graphic novel about Beaton's experiences working in the Canadian oil sands. I think it's really thoughtful and striking, and I think the book crafted a really strong thesis about the grey areas of that kind of work. Cw for sexual harassment and assault if you read it.
  
  It's a novel that puts all the blocks together and then asks you to tip the whole thing over, I think it works really well.

Translation State by Ann Leckie

• why I read it: I saw this on one of Sydney's book wrap ups I think?


• thoughts: Do you like weird scifi??? Do you like to think about Concepts? This book is tangentially for you! There's simply so much talking that goes on in it.
  
  The concept of the Presger translators fucks! [Redacted spoilers.] But the execution is kinda bland imo. There's three story lines balanced in here, and while they were good idk if any of them combined or individually really were great.
  
  Like I guess I wanted an ending with more oomph, fuck things up, you know?? Enough diplomatic meetings give me murder.

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

• why I read it: I watched a like, twenty minute video essay on this book and decided that was worth enough to pick it up lmao.


• thoughts: I don't think it's really worth reading unless you're looking for something to turn your brain off.
  
  pros:
  - dragons!
  - military academy
  - two (2) characters I liked
  
  cons:
  - writing was not... what you call..... good
  - the pacing was really weird too
  - the plot is like, very divergent/twilight/etc in terms of the romance even if this is shelved as adult fic, and I rolled my eyes one too many times to recommend it
  - any character who wasn't violet or one of the two male leads was about as thin as a sheet of paper
  
  There's some EDS rep from the mc, but ymmv with it. An author I follow on tumblr who has EDS hated it (second post), but Yarros does have EDS herself so probably drew from that while writing. There's like, some fun moments in there, but I don't think it's worth reading just for that.

Natsume's Book of Friends by Yuki Midorikawa (vol 1-3)

• why I read it: Some friends and I are doing a read along of this series!


• thoughts: This is really sweet. It's a manga about Natsume, a boy who can see spirits who inherits his late Grandmother's book of spirit names. These names can be used to control spirits, and Natsume vows to return the names to the spirits that own them. It's a series that's as focused on loneliness as it is magic, and it has a really gentle tone. I read some of this a while ago (like 5+ years ago) so it's familiar. I think we're going to hit the part of it I haven't read soon. I like it a lot!

I Want to be a Wall, Vol. 1 by Honami Shirono

• why I read it: I picked this up at work and read it in one sitting! This was actually a September read that I forgot to put on last last months' round up.


• thoughts: This was cute! It's about an ace woman and a gay man getting lavender married. They don't explain how they met in the first volume though. It's cute!! The husband keeps trying to get into the wife's yaoi doujins lmaooo. It's just really fluffy--not a lot of substance, but not necessarily lacking for that.

Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne

• why I read it: A coworker recommended this to me!


• thoughts: This is a comic, basically premised on the idea the question "what if everyone on earth got a genie with one wish?". It spirals from there.
  
  It's pretty solid! I think it's an interesting exploration of the thought exercise, and I think ends on a note that feels complete. It didn't really strike me beyond that.

Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying

• why I read it: Another book I picked up at work! I actually read it in like August but I think I forgot to put in on my list then.


• thoughts: This is a graphic novel that centers on eating disorders, family dynamics/grief, and self love. It's definitely aimed at a teenage audience. It does what it intended to really well, even if it wasn't the novel for me.

TV

One Piece Live Action (2023)
I'm halfway through this and really enjoying it!!! I'm familiar with the anime/manga, so I already knew the plot going in. I think this is a really great adaptation--they tighten up the plot a little for first time watchers, and really lean into the camp of the adaptation.

MISC

all my youth: a needlessly detailed close reading of txt’s discography by huayangnianhua
Em (huayangnianhua) did an essay on boybandisms and youth concepts and txt and it's so interesting and good! I'm still reading through it but I really love the first half.

Behind the Scenes of the Translation Process That Brought the BTS Memoir to English-Speaking Fans by Kayti Burt
This is an article about the translation process for the BTS memoir, which sounds wild? It's a really interesting read.

It was early spring of 2023 when translator Anton Hur was cold-emailed by Megan Lynch, a senior vice president and publisher at Flatiron Books, about translating a mystery manuscript from its original Korean to English. In the initial pitch, he was only given the broadest of details: The book is non-fiction. It’s around 400 pages. And it has to be translated in a month. “I was like, ‘You, sir, want us to translate a 400-page, non-fiction book? In a month?’” recounts Hur, via Zoom from his home in Seoul. “And then [Lynch] said, ‘Oh, also the book is still being written.’”

In Progress

I'm currently reading Easy Beauty and I want to start Lonely City but also I need to finish The Archive Undying before I have to return it!!!

Poetry

How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This by Hanif Abdurraqib

And from poem-a-day (I really liked a lot of them this month! I'm going to check out Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, who curated this batch of them, later.):

Season of Grief by Khadijah Queen

Mujer Malvada by Janel Pineda

a force is a push or a pull (5.8 million puerto ricans in america) by Giovannai Rosa

Luke and the Frog: An American Fairytale OR What It Feels Like to Be a Parent in America by Jasminne Mendez

Decolonialish Self-Portrait by Sara Borjas

You, Emblazoned by Cass Donish

A Sonnet by Jos Charles
I've actually heard Charles speak before, she's really engaging in person!

Friends with No Benefits by Megan Fernandes

She Passed This Way by Djuna Barnes

Somewhere Else by Adam J. Gellings

The warble of melting snow is the river by Emily Lee Luan

The Systemic by J. Estanislao Lopez

Tenebris by Angelina Weld Grimké

ER S/P GSW by Paul Hlava Ceballos

Grow by Ruth Ellen Kocher

An Erasure of Senate Bill 1698 (2) by Moncho Alvarado

Matrilineage [umbilicus] by Sarah Ghazal Ali

Chansons Innocentes II by E. E. Cummings

40285.0340277778 by Cristina Rivera Garza (translated by Ilana Luna and Cheyla Samuelson)

The Opposite of Abandonment by Alexis Acevez Garcia

Music

SCROBBLES: 3,118

SCROBBLES PER DAY: 100

I really got into the Blue Giant score after seeing the movie!! I also loved the Pinkshift/Jhariah release, and the Pinkshift EP. A friend linked me Ki-Ki, and I liked that a lot. I listened to a lot of chiller music this month, but that's comparative to the amount of high tension music I listen to on a regular basis lol.

Artists:

1. MUNA - 349
2. ATEEZ - 233
3. Vienna Teng - 221
4. Hiromi - 172
5. Hozier - 171
6. Joy Oladokun - 141
7. Pinkshift - 120
8. TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 79
9. EXO - 74
10. My Chemical Romance - 73

Albums:

1. MUNA by MUNA - 157
2. Unreal Unearth by Hozier - 146
3. BLUE GIANT (オリジナル・サウンドトラック) by Hiromi - 133
4. Waking Hour by Vienna Teng - 125
5. Proof of Life by Joy Oladokun - 110
6. Saves the World by MUNA - 72
7. THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW by ATEEZ - 67
8. About U by MUNA - 65
9. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan - 64
10. Dreaming Through The Noise by Vienna Teng - 64

Songs:

1. Taking Things for Granted by Joy Oladokun - 59
2. A Lesson In Dramatics by Save Face - 38
3. lullaby by Pinkshift - 35
4. What I Want by MUNA - 30
5. Pilot by Omar Apollo - 29
6. Blue Spring by TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 28
7. deep by Devon Again - 24
8. Ki-Ki by YEИDRY - 24
9. De Selby (Part 1) by Hozier - 23
10. Pink Light by MUNA - 23

Comments

[kpopwinemom]

I think my favorite thing about Fourth Wing is how much everyone loves it, honestly.

I went into it thinking "this book is gonna suck" and was genuinely annoyed for the first half the book. The audiobook being genuinely awful did not help that.

It did pick up for me a lot in the final few pages, and I did preorder the second one but...it's definitely not the most brilliant thing I've ever read.

But so many people like it so much, and it is sort of fun to be caught up in the rush of it all, so I am enjoying it in that way!

I LOVED One Piece. My best friend is obsessed with the anime, so it felt good to be able to get into it with her without having to delve deep into a million episode anime. Plus, it is just such a good and honest adaptation, where you could tell a lot of thought, heart and effort went into making it work for a new media.

[latespring]

YESSS I'm so glad you liked the one piece adaptation!

that's a really sweet reason for liking the fourth wing <3 I'm kind of debating borrowing the second one also lol, I do want to know what happens

[kpopwinemom]

The One Piece adaptation was like...so good. I do not watch tv and it super sucked me in lol

<3 I love sharing fandoms with people, so it was nice to get in that way. I am hopeful that the plot will be improving in book 2, though. I heard she already wrote like, a significant chunk of the series, so that makes me think it might have a plan?

[braintransplant]

I felt similarly about Translation State! Like it’s by no means bad but certainly middling at best, especially considering how I normally feel about Leckie’s work in that universe.

[latespring]

Yeah! I'm definitely interested in reading more from that universe now that I've read a little of it, especially since you and a couple other people I know like them

[glitteryv]

I watched a like, twenty minute video essay on this book and decided that was worth enough to pick it up lmao.

I watched an hourlong video from a Booktuber whose reading tastes mostly align with mine and was convinced that Fourth Wing is not for me. XD

That coupled with how hard BookTok* ppl have pushed for this book was all I needed for me to not even bother to pick it up. Not cuz I think I'm better than/I have a refine reading taste. It's simply a combo of having a v. delicate hype backlash button + having a ton of other books I'd rather check out. Instead of, you know, forcing myself to read thru something I'm already so heavily biased against.


*Not going to, like, super generalize here. However, ime, a lot of what BookTok tends to squee abt is either actually horrible (think super-racist or misogynistic novels) or mediocre books. And, unfortunately, this has happened enough times for me to immediately be suspicious of anything that gets tagged as 'super popular on BookTok'. Mind you, I'm sure that there are really good books getting recced, but those are in the minority, IMO.

Also: this thing is something that happens in every social media platoform, btw. It so happens that BookTok is the most prevalent one due to it being the 'new thing' or whatever. /rant over. (sorry!)

[latespring]

lol I'm glad you figured out what wasn't going to work for you before you picked anything up!

[sleepypapercrowns]

I ALSO watched Dungeons & Dragons on a plane in october, how fun!

Please tell me which characters in fourth wing you liked, because I would like to throw Violet out of a window with the way she infuriated me throughout the book.

I'm glad you got around to Ducks and that you liked it! I have found out this year that memoirs in the form of graphic novels are THE way to consume them for me, so I really appreciated this one, too!

[latespring]

omg same movie!!!

hahaha I was reluctantly charmed by xaden, and I liked Liam even if he was a bit one note. also I loved any dragon character by default!

I agree graphic novels are such a great format for memoirs!

[sleepypapercrowns]

Liam is an easy character to love I feel! Xaden really won me over in the second one (still in the middle of it), he's the only one with a brain lmao. Also, Imogen is a feisty one and she's perfect for that!!!

Are you planning to read the second one even though you didn't fully get on with this one?

[latespring]

yeah I have it on hold from the library right now!

I'm excited to hear your thoughts about it too

[pamantha]

your taste is impeccable and I will for sure be perusing your poetry and misc recs especially (that BTS translation article sounds wild) thank u for posting!!

[latespring]

I hope you enjoy!! <3 I'd love to hear your thoughts