You know you love a book when you realize you have to babysit tomorrow because your sister has an important court date. Yet, you still keep reading. And you know you have to get up quite early for the early rising spud but you still keep reading. Until natural light filters through the window and the book is finished. Then after ruminating on the awesome, you burrow your head down and think: "Two hours sleep? Well worth it!"

But seriously folks. Gone Baby Gone by Dennie Lehane.

I've heard the film praised but I have yet to see the book praised on my Flist. But DAMN and Holy Hell. That ending? It was so perfect. It pulled no punches and there was nothing saccharine sweet or hokey about it. This is true ambiguity with no right or wrong choice, just a bunch of choices that all of have bad consequences. And which one can you live with in the end?

Dennis Lehane, I'm a new fan. I've already passed the book on to spread the love. I think I will look for "Mystic River" and some of your other books. It's very hard to get me to enjoy crime fiction but you succeeded because first and foremost I believe you write characters and they drive the novel, rather than the plot. Their actions are intrinsic to who they are, rather than something they must do to keep the plot moving.

I found the characters in this book interesting for the vulnerability exposed by their ferocity. Does that make sense? Kenzie and Angela are great PI characters and I think they'd seriously kick Veronica Mars's ass. Their bad ass friends would eat her's for breakfast too, no offence Weevil and Logan, you know I love you.

But even Broussard and Poole and Beatrice and Lionel and Helene. All of them fucked up in a variety of ways that ebb and flow and crash together. I think the final confrontation wasn't the spectacular, adrenaline pumping chased you'd expect but then...I felt the point of it and the climax had been far before that. This book felt more about that sick sink into resignation, when we see the world isn't black and white and even if the happy ending seems within reach, it's probably not a happy ending at all.

I thoroughly recommend it and I'm more excited about trying the film when it comes out on DVD now. I'd already heard good things but I think Michelle Monaghan (who I love for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang alone) and Casey Affleck really suit the characters. Plus, at least we know Ben is good at capturing the rough and tumble side of Boston since that's how his career jetisoned in the first place.

Does anyone know what happened to desire_of_mind and their fics? I have none of them unfortunately. Doing my weekly search for old fics I need to collect and alas, too late again. I'm even more sad because in my search I found this. Darnit, she recced me...

Doesn't it amaze you how a former fandom obsession that you have only sporadic interest in at the moment can suddenly rear up and overwhelm you when you talk on the subject with someone else?

( HP Fandom, the marauders and the desire for good fanfic... )

I know my new spark of appreciation/curiosity won't last long enough for me to write anything and I'm too busy even if it did. (Plus, my HP fics suck.) But I do wonder if anyone has heard of good James/Lily fics to come out of The Deathly Hallows and the Snape & Lily flashbacks? I haven't seen any but I wasn't looking at the time they could have been posted. I realize a lot of good and really bad Snape/Lily must have been posted but I want something that could be canon. Something that isn't shmaltzy sweet or all about Lily settling for James because she couldn't get past Snape's principles even though she truly loved him. I LIKE that Snape's love was unrequited and he loved her regardless. It's fucked up and awesome.

So...long winded. But this love will fade and I must get my thoughts out while I can be bothered formulating anything about the books. Plus, I've been talking about this for hours I have a lot of THOUGHTS floating about still.

If there's anyone with an interest in the fandom that loves the marauders (a lot of ifs so I'm not expecting much) and could help me out, I'd be obliged.

Life is...life. I'm too exhausted by everything to try and be poetic about disaster at the moment. Thanks fandom for distracting me for an hour tonight. I only had enough focus to do manual crap so here's a couple of recs and icons.

Thanks for all your words the other day. I know I rant TMI sometimes on this journal and tell you guys things you'd rather not know but it's largely because I'm talking to myself as I'm using to being a bit of a brick wall for my family and friends. Thanks for being the Atlas for my life if only for five seconds, I'll try and get back to you tomorrow. :)

( A few more LV Post-Episode Recs; Episode 16 recs are finally up. )

Icons

001-002 - Alias (Lauren/Sark)
003-005 - Dawson's Creek (Pacey Witter)
006-007 - Perfume Advertisment
008-013 - Veronica Mars (Logan, LV)
014-019 - Shiri Appleby Shoot

( Clickity Click )

Mmmmm, Ryan Gossling. Why do you ever wear clothes?

Oh, and the lovely sweetumms33 tagged me in this meme of love. I shall pass it on to ten new people who make me smile:

-Pick 10 people and give them the "you make my day" award. If you're picked, you are charged with picking 10 of your own.

queen_haq
shangri__la
darkmuse_ic
freneticfloetry
kalenodonnell
kuromatic
ladygloria
lama_not_llama
penelope78
rejeneration
sowell

Okay, I lied. There's 11. I felt weird cutting one of them when I accidentally added one more. I love you all and the rest of my FLIST too. :)

In other fandom related stuff. I have decided I will complete the rec list for LV. It'll be slow but I'll get it done. IT's so close to done and I finish so few things that I actually feel lousy that I couldn't quite make it to the end. The spite has been blunted and the side of me that wants to complete something I worked so hard on kicked in. Even if I never take up writing LV again, this list will be finished, especially since I've had links saved for over a year that I haven't yet added (I apologize to all authors in the T's and S's, I've neglected you and it really backed up). I'll put some up every week and here's the ones that I've gradually updated over the last two weeks.

( LV Post-Episodic Recs Updates )

You can probably tell I've been going through by author. These babies were meant to be added a looooooong time ago and I'm sorry to the writers, especially since some of you are now on my FList and I feel bad on several levels. Just wanted you to know that I didn't do that on purpose, I'm just lazy and only just realized I haven't updated the S authors in oh...at least a year. Ooops.

As always, feel free to let me know if you want to be removed from the list and I will do so. Or to recommend something not yet on it (even though it's likely it's still in my backlog). Check out the list here. Look for the for the newer recs. I'll have the old smilies down tomorrow.

I've been browsing through DC fanfic for a while. I tend to venture into random fandoms to wean myself off the bigs ones. Since Rob Thomas loathes DC it seemed the perfect choice to work through VM issues. The fandom is a mixed bag of good and bad. It's odd coming into a fandom this late because a lot of the "classics" of fandom have walked the green mile right off the internet by now.

I loved a lot of them. But I find myself surprised by my favourite. My fave fic so far is "Not For Me" by WitterWoman. Has anyone read that fic? It's a brilliant one shot, post-Four Stories.

Not many fics have broken my heart and made me so content at the same time. It's the essence of catharsis. I think the fact VM has failed to produce a fic like this in a likewise situation may have influenced my feelings about it. VM exploded in a way that made it impossible to write a fic that put Logan in the power position by the end even though I long for it.

I do think anyone who loved Pacey and hated the Lie Heard 'Round the World should read this fic. It's just beautifully written. Every character is in character. I feel for everybody, and I can cry for Pacey's heartbreak, believe his love while still wanting the relationship over. It's very hard to get that balance because the bitterness in fandom in these situations often takes over. Which means you don't necessarily believe the love any more and the core of the fic feels vindictive. Alternatively fics make the breakup seem contrived much like the TV show did because it doesn't feel necessary. This has such elegant balance.

I think I've read this fic about four or five times already and I've only been reading DC fic for a couple of months.

I think I'm passed the time I need this fandom to fill the void, and I'll stop reading soon. But I'll keep this one as a gem.

( A Few More Recs.... )

"November Rain" was updated today (squee) and it reminded me about those recs I wanted to compile for sweetumms33. As I went through my links, however, I realized to my horror that Miss Zennie has taken all her fics down. What the?? When? Huh? Nooooo. *pouts* I have no backup copies and now I'm pouting; I liked her stuff so much. Damn it. Alas, her fics cannot be on this list since I have no active links but they are there in spirit. Please feel free to rec something that isn't here! :)

( Jackie and Hyde Recs )

Just popping in to say over the last week I gradually updated two of my rec lists. Look out for the on the LoVe Rec List (season one and three) and the Logan/Other recs. There's still a horrendous amount of fics that need to be added eventually. But priorities, back to writing :)

I've just realized I've doomed myself somehow in most of my fandoms. I have several fics in every fandom that are all-time favourites of mine which are either very slow to be updated (and who am I to complain about that?) or are indefinitely benched. Some I have no idea either way. And yet I love the writing so much that I keep going back every six months or so and reading through the glorious chapters that are already available and getting that excited feeling you get while under a constant enslaught of brilliance. Then you reach the end and it's the same cliffhanger you read six months ago and the bubble bursts. But I need more!

Sigh.

I don't get pissy just clingy with fics I'm obsessed with (or that's what I tell myself, lol). I want them to be updated but they are so good that it probably wouldn't bother me if they weren't updated so long as I got to keep what is already there. I feel sort of like a kitten pawing at the door of someone hoarding my favourite kibbles. Please feed me! lol You probably know who you are, I'm not exactly subtle with the whining. ;)

So this post is dedicated to the glorious WIPs that kill me with an anticipation that is never satisfied (but still somehow tickle all of my fanfic loves so that I can't even muster some annoyance with the lack of updating).

If anyone knows any other fics that are seldom/never updated but are still worth reading many, many times please jump in with a link! :)

( Alias )
( Dark Angel )
( Harry Potter )
( Roswell )
( That 70s Show )
( Veronica Mars )

Updated the Logan/Other recs with a couple new Logan/Parker fics by a great new author ainsamely. You should definitely check them out; I'd recommend reading "Please Save Us College Kids" if you're just looking for 'Logan, Parker' friendship fic with Logan finally examining his life and taking positive steps. It's very cathartic without being "shippy" for those on my flist that still aren't ready (or not inclined) to read Logan romances with anyone but V yet.

I also added a new 'Meg, Logan' fic that was interesting by hariboo_smirks, it's sort of an unrequited story through several different universes. Typos were quite profuse in it but you can tell with a grammar beta (it was mostly punctuation and accidental stuff) that they'll grow into a good writer one day and the dialogue is strong. Plus, Meg asks the question I've always wanted someone to ask: What is it about Veronica? Because from where I'm sitting, she's a bitch. lol

I'm also biting the bullet and adding my two Meg/Logan fics because I want as much Logan/Other propaganda on the list as possible; I figure, the more people read, the more they are likely to write. It's wanky but I don't care, there's just not enough Logan/Meg fic to be finicky about it.

Also, does anyone think I should add Logan/OC to the rec list? There are only two of them that I can remember (one hasn't been updated since the first chapter) but any reason to rec more queen_haq fic is good enough for me! :-D Plus, that widens the poor boy's options even more. Speaking of Logan/OC, here's my latest fetish in a manip:

( Click for pic (edited due to stupidity) )