Court
This is anecdotal, but I still find it interesting: six people I follow have read it, the three whom (I assume) are male gave it two stars and the three (whom I assume) are women gave it four stars.
I went into this with low expectations, not because the guys gave it two stars, but because I have lower expectations for things that are horror/thriller/‘dark'. If it doesn't disgust or piss me off and has a plot it's at least a three.
This was pretty good. Not the strongest four stars, but the art was awesome, I liked the premise, how the the entity/ghost revealed himself (itself?), the pacing, the discussion of ‘real', Ro's agent, and I felt the fear and vulnerability of not being able to get out of the house. I also loved the reference to Lydia from Beetlejuice.
3.5 rounded up because of the time period and racial topics.
Recently finished listening to Caste (which I still want to review), narrated by the same Robin Miles. I really appreciated the after note discussing a few temporal liberties.
I loved the way the time period was represented. I feel that that portion of the book was five stars. However, Belle's personal life I found less engaging, I'm not a fan of romance and I found the other aspects -while interesting- to be repetitive. Although I'm not a fan of romance I did appreciate ‘non-traditional' relationships being represented ‘Boston marriage', lesbians, polyamory, not sure if Berenson was in an ‘open marriage' or if it was more of a marriage of convenience, but Berenson and Belle had an open and long distance relationship. This is a personal failing of mine, but I especially had difficulty with Belle doing absolutely nothing in terms of contraception. I understand that her mother might not have explained things to her, but couldn't she have attempted to look things up? And surely she knew of the risks/potential consequences of sex and taking TWO missed periods before thinking about potential pregnancy. Although Berenson's attitude of ‘I thought you had things taken care of on your side' smacks of 100% authenticity to me. I understand that historically the real Belle had an abortion -and I am pro-choice and respect her decision, I am mournful that she didn't even try to prevent pregnancy and the anguish she experienced.
Read at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/30/permission-to-enter
Some of this was gorgeous and so well written.
I especially enjoyed the 8th section:
It became clear that Keisha Blake could not start something without finishing it. If she climbed onto the boundary wall of Caldwell, she was compelled to walk the entire wall, no matter the obstructions in her path (beer cans, branches). This compulsion, applied to other fields, manifested itself as “intelligence.” Every unknown word sent her to a dictionary—in search of something like “completion”—and every book led to another book, a process that, of course, could never be completed. This route through early life gave her no small portion of joy, and, indeed, it seemed at first that her desires and her capacities were basically aligned. She wanted to read things—could not resist wanting to read things—and reading was easily done, and relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, that she should receive any praise for such reflexive habits baffled the girl, for she knew herself to be fantastically stupid about many things. Wasn't it possible that what others mistook for intelligence was in fact only a sort of mutation of the will? She could sit in one place longer than other children, be bored for hours without complaint, and was completely devoted to filling in every last corner of the coloring books Augustus Blake sometimes brought home. She could not help her mutated will—no more than she could help the shape of her feet or the street on which she was born. She was unable to glean real satisfaction from accidents. In the child's mind, a breach now appeared: between what she believed she knew of herself, essentially, and her essence as others seemed to understand it. She began to exist for other people, and if ever asked a question to which she did not know the answer she was wont to fold her arms across her body and look upward. As if the question itself were too obvious to truly concern her.
A weak three. Tova is great, Ethan is okay, but Marcellus is the star and there's not enough of him.
Minor characters: Jeanne great, Terry pretty good, Elizabeth good, Simon Brinks good, the Knit Wits well written, but Avery was not believable.
Cameron was SO annoying, he lacked charm and I did not feel sympathy for him. The plot also seemed fairly obvious. I picked up this book for the octopus and Tova and got manchild finds the grandmother he doesn't know he has and becomes less of an ass hat because he learns (I guess) to keep a job and to be cleaner?
I understand that there could only be so much of Marcellus but it still feels like a bait and switch. It's a gorgeous cover, but I also saw that there's a version of the book with the dala (or Dalecarlian) horse on the cover and oof that would have thrown me as the horses are only mentioned about twice. Then it got weird when Marcellus says that these communications (or something like that) tire him out and that weakened it for me. I had assumed that they were his thoughts. Also it says that Terry's daughter named Marcellus when she was four, what 4 year old knows the name Marcellus, was she into Roman history or something?
The concept is great, but there are a few detractors. There are errors that the editor or the letterer should have spotted such as words being out of order in a sentence. Some transitions seemed abrupt or out of nowhere. In the edition I read the very first page isn't a title page it's a (mock?) ad for corsets, which is fine but it would have been better – and made more sense– if there were additional ‘ads' throughout the book, giving it the feeling of being read in a newspaper, but because there was only one, and its placement, it falls flat.
I do appreciate being able to read this adapted work of Nellie Bly. Perhaps I'll seek out another version or the original. I think this is important. Last weekend while visiting with an aunt she said she thinks that we should ‘bring back' mental asylums, so I mentioned that I was reading this. I agree with her that there should be more places that are accessible that help people recover, but that they need oversight and then another aunt and I brought up the abuse that occurs at care homes for the elderly. obviously mental asylums (or rather Psychiatric hospital) still exist, it just seems that every so often the news covers the closing of one and it seems like they're disappearing. Also addiction recovery facilities all seem to report something like 80+% recovery rate but are usually less effective than that.
This is deliciously camp although sometimes a bit much, but I loved it. There was a Mount Batman (I'll try to add the image later). This was a lighter Batman, I'm not sure if I can compare it to the Adam West Batman, but it was what I thought of at times when I read the sound effects and when Batman and Robin spoke. Some villains were better than others but I liked them overall.
[a:Patrick Warburton 20146450 Patrick Warburton https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] was an excellent narrator. At one point where Warburton read a passage that had the word poison multiple times I couldn't help but think of Kronk in this scene:I love Lemony Snicket and appreciated the repetition of the breakfast: tea with honey, toast with cheese, a sliced pear, and an egg, perfectly prepared. I adored the conversation with the translator and the author and of course the reverence for librarians, libraries, and literature.At one point he says, “It is almost as if enormous philosophical questions are not designed to be answered at all, but just to make you think.” Which made me think of the concept of koans, and made me smile.I already knew that the stranger come to town and the hero setting out on a journey were different sides of the same tale, but I thought it was clever to put together the rules of being mysterious and leaving things out. It made sense and was clever. To test my memory, although I would enjoy reading or listening to this again, here is a summary:After finding a note "poison for breakfast" Snicket goes to investigates the tea shop, but they are closed (around the world). This is okay since he decides that he trusts the tea shop. Next he goes to his honey supplier, who points him to the ocean, the source of the water that he used to brew his tea. He swims in the ocean. Next he visits the goats (who produced his cheese), they seem fine, and then the bakery. I recall a discussion of low hanging fruit, which must be about the pear and he talks about the 'paradox' of the egg or the chicken coming first. He ends up at the library and then finds his answer.
This was fantastic, it was really well written and researched. An added part of the charm was listening to it being read with an Australian accent.
Characters were well written and I especially liked the sibling relations. Thought the pacing was great.
Things I thought were well researched and written about: tennis, ballet, physiotherapy, migraines, psychology.
I liked how at the end Stan talks about trading using a tennis metaphor.
update March 2024
ooooh a series is being released this month, I think I'll check that out too
I REALLY liked Cuckoo's Nest. I thought it was clever and liked the mixture of text and image, like a play about a play. I often find meta appealing. Good, consistent style.
The connecting parts were also good, especially the interactions with —well not just his father, but also the other characters' relationships with fathers.
I thought the narration was excellent and so was the prose. I will admit that I fell in and out of attending to it, but was often brought back by lovely turns of phrase and simple truths. Before reading this I already knew that there is a lot of waiting and boredom as part of being in the military which is then sometimes followed by intense action or grueling work, and this is shown well in the novel. I appreciated the emotional range that is portrayed.
I will definitely follow up by reading the spark notes or something to help fill in any gaps.
read up to #53 via webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/loving-reaper/list?title_no=353275
I love a good portrayal of Death or The Reaper. I very much appreciate Jinya's view of Life and Death. Great art style and yup reading these all at once made me tear up.
Will try to keep up as it seems that this is pretty current with #53 coming out this August.
Read: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/09/standing-by
Since I've listened to Sedaris read some of his own books I can summon his notable voice and heard it in this article. I can't complain about Sedaris' complaints as I agree with them. I am also of the opinion that one should dress nicely while traveling. I am less bothered about waiting in an airport but understand the frustration and potential derailment. Sometimes a little acerbic for my taste, but still cathartic to experience.
This was a good set up:
When I asked another flight attendant, this one male, how he dealt with a plane full of belligerent passengers, he said, “Oh, we have our ways. The next time you're flying and it comes time to land, listen closely as we make our final pass down the aisle.”
“We've got to take our country back,” the man with the mustache said. “That's the long and short of it, and if votes won't do the trick then maybe we need to use force.”
What struck me with him, and with many of the conservatives I'd heard since the election, was his overblown, almost egocentric take on political outrage, his certainty that no one else had quite experienced it before. What, then, had I felt during the Bush-Cheney years?
“Your trash. You're trash. Your family's trash.”
Abandoned this twice. I forget which year I originally picked it up, but I abandoned it because I could not tell the characters apart. This year (2023) I thought I'd give it another try. I made it further and started to like the part about the queen, but then it fizzled and I felt that it wasn't worth the effort. Which is a shame because it seemed to be touching on interesting topics such as regional identity/culture, priorities of state, difficulties of government to balance what's important, war and rebellion... I'm taking a look at the afterword and am somewhere between incensed and irked that one of the places she takes inspiration from is the Cascade Range. Does she think she's clever because of the Cascadia movement; does she support the creation of this new country?! takes a breath ah she's from Seattle, its more likely that's why the area inspired her. I also had a hard time with her book [b:Squirrel Mother 47090 Squirrel Mother Megan Kelso https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924568l/47090.SX50.jpg 46144]