I went to my first mug night at the Green Leaf...

...and they were out of mugs. Figures. I've been here a whole year, I finally get to go to one of the major social events this sleepy little town holds, and I can't even get the means to enjoy it properly. I mostly want a mug because the slogan "Good food. Good beer. Good people. Bad parking." amuses me a lot; I've been afraid a car will try and pull into the lot when I'm pulling out (there's absolutely no room for that to work!).

In other news, I've started working with the autistic son of a dance professor here at W&M, so hopefully that will continue to go well. I was hoping to see his school routine but that didn't work out, so I'm making it up as I go along and I hope that does the trick.

I also spent time reading Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey, when I probably should have been reading for my master's project--the lit review is due this week. But the story was decent, though not as engaging as the previous trilogy. I think some of it is due to the fact that so much was recapped for new readers, which made the narration drag and feel a little false--who's going to say those kinds of things in first person? And I think Imriel is just not as engaging a character as Phedre; maybe he'll get more interesting as he grows up. Maybe it's the fact that his voice never changes, although the novel spans the years from 14-18--I've become much more sensitive to the voices of children from reading YA novels (not to mention Donna Jo's Writing for Children class), and this one doesn't seem quite as authentic. But that's just me, and it wasn't something that would preclude me reading her newest book when it comes out this year.

The job search still goes on, slowly. It's hard to motivate myself to do all those little things that go into such a search and keep on top of things; but I'm trying.

Also recently read: The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis. A YA story about an Afghani girl who dresses as a boy to make money for her family after her father is put in prison. The end of the story is very open-ended and unresolved, much like the current situation in the region.

The Ender's Shadow series (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant, in whichever order is correct) by Orson Scott Card. I'd been somewhat fascinated by the idea of this series ever since reading Card's description of it in that huge short story collection I read last summer. The idea of writing a parallel novel which covers the events in one of your previous novels from another character's point of view? Sounds like a marketing ploy to cash in on the popularity of Ender's Game. But let's face it, Bean is one of the most interesting characters in that book, and it's disconcerting at times to see things through his eyes; I had no idea he was supposed to be smarter than Ender. The three remaining books in the series are a little less interesting, I think for some of the same reasons Kushiel's Scion jarred me: the voices and actions of the characters don't match up with their ages. It's true that going through Battle School would make any child grow up quickly, but there's still something about it that doesn't seem right. Especially the way in which Bean falls into the philosophy that marrying and producing a family is a human's purpose in life; it's a very Mormon philosophy, to be sure, but I feel like Bean wouldn't have given in so easily.

I also reread Sabriel by Garth Nix when a copy came through BookCrossing, but I suppose that doesn't count.