We did it!

[lunabee34]

We made the offer. We gave the realtor our earnest money. Now we wait.

*pins and needles*

I can't help starting to do some culling; even if something happens and the deal falls through, I won't regret going through my filing cabinet and organizing everything (correct labels on file folders *and* hanging files) and throwing things away or winnowing down the bookshelves.

I read a couple books.



Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I like this. Weirdly, I like the movie better. I feel like the movie gives me a much better sense of all the characters (especially Simon's friends) than the book; the book is a bit spare. I do like that in the book Leah is not in love with Simon as she is in the movie. I also like that Leah and Simon's sister form a band in the book. I wish that had made it into the movie.

Great voices here. Albertalli writes great teen angst and moodiness and humor. Her teens sound like teens and are very preoccupied with teen concerns.

Lots of pop culture and music references that I appreciate.

Solid book with solid writing. Especially recommended for YA readers.



View all my reviews

The Poetics by Aristotle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is an important text; all educated people should have some general idea of the principles Aristotle lays out in The Poetics and On Rhetoric. But, boy, is it boring to read. LOL This was also a particularly unwieldy translation. I would give this a hard pass unless you are a classics scholar (or required to read it in school).



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Comments

[the_rck]

You've got the same review twice instead of two reviews.

I expect that the Abertalli book is more interesting than Aristotle, but...

[lunabee34]

Whoops! Thanks for the catch. :)

I hope you are feeling better.

[the_rck]

Oh, and good luck on your offer! Waiting is the worst.

[lunabee34]

Thank you! I am mostly not having the panicky feelings I had leading up to us making the offer. LOL

[zulu]

Wow, hooray! Crossing fingers for you! And agreed about Poetics.

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

Poetics is such a slog; to be fair, though, this was a tragic (ha!) translation that left me little choice but boredom. I bet another translation is way more readable.

[musyc]

Oooh, good luck!

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[umadoshi]

Now we wait.

I hope you get an answer quickly! Waiting on that kind of thing is awful. *fingers crossed*

[lunabee34]

Me toooooo! I hope they won't mull it over for too long. I also hope they won't counter with something ridiculous.

[china_shop]

Good luck! Good luck!

I just saw the movie of Love Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda a couple of days ago, having read the book last year. The two things I felt were missing from the film were, yeah, Leah starting a band with Simon's sister, and also, I'm pretty sure that in the book Simon actually called his dad on the bad jokes and brought home to him that the dad had been being casually homophobic the whole time, rather than the dad having that realisation on his own. Is that right? Because if so, I liked that better.

But overall yes. +1 to your review. :-)

[lunabee34]

Yep. I'd have loved to see Leah and the band. You are also right that Simon (and the whole family really) call the dad on his behavior rather than him realizing it on his own.

I also liked that Leah was not in love with Simon in the book and liked Nick instead.

The other change that bothered me is that in the movie, Simon's parents don't care about him drinking, but in the book, his ass gets in trouble as it should. I turned to Emma during the movie at that part and said, "Not in a billion years, my dear, will you get that reaction." LOL

[china_shop]

The other change that bothered me is that in the movie, Simon's parents don't care about him drinking, but in the book, his ass gets in trouble as it should.

Ha, I don't remember that, but you're right, it makes much more sense that he'd get in trouble for that. It's like the film tried to make his life just a touch too perfect (from a teen perspective).

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

[torachan]

Good luck with the house!

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[timespirt]

Good luck hon, fingers crossed for you.

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[lyr]

Eeee! Good luck!

Also, on the subject of books, to celebrate World Book Day Amazon is giving away free kindle copies of 9 award-winning books from around the world here: https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world//ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll2&tag=ter000-20&linkId=f4f9f5c1d06155d823cd0e8ecc37c45d. I thought you might be interested.

[lunabee34]

Thank you on both counts!

:)

[independence1776]

Eee, good luck!

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[the_emu]

Whooo! House! That's so awesome!

I loved both Simon the book and movie, for different things.

I really loved how joyful the movie was. That's going to be a movie I rewatch to feel good about the world, like The Martian. And I really love how clearly his friends call Simon out for his behaviour, for lying and manipulating them. It sets this movie apart from the John Hughes classics.

otoh the book catches all sorts of details I really like, and does more with that universality of teen years being all about different kinds of coming out.


You might like to know that the sorta-sequel came out today: 'Leah on the Offbeat' is Leah's story - with her band - starting about a year later. I'm about ten pages in. :-) It's going to be awkward if they make this book a film, since her band never rates a mention in Love Simon.

[lunabee34]

Leah on the Offbeat is already winging its way here! I pre-ordered it when I bought Simon. :)

I do agree with you how joyous the movie is. One of the things I liked about both the book and movie is that Martin isn't an evil kid; Simon likes him for a lot of the book. He's endearing despite making asshole moves. I really liked in the book that is envious of Simon and more than anything else wanted to be his friend.

I kept thinking, "I am so old!" as I read the book because I only recognized like one band in the whole book. LOL I also thought it was really interesting how little TV he watches; I find that very true of my students, too. They don't appear to be watching TV much; TV is an old people thing.

[the_emu]

Yes to Martin. I really really like, especially in high school stories, when the 'bad' kids are sympathetic. I'm willing to write off adults, but kids screw up because they're scared or insecure or misled.

I also like that they didn't go to the other end, where his bad behaviour was rewarded or just shrugged off.


Yes! I do boggle occasionally at the shift in viewing habits. When I was a kid, there was one TV in the house, and almost every night we watched shows as a family. As a 10yo and right through high school, on a Friday I learned what Australian native plants made good privacy hedges, because my mum wanted to watch a home and gardening show. And half the kids and adults I knew watched that show, or any of the other shows I watched. So a couple of hours every night were spent on stories that were shared by my family and also between generations in general.

Now so much of what tweens and teens view is online, and isn't shared at all with their parents or even siblings. There might be a couple of shows shared by the family, but not nightly viewing. And nothing shared by the family is watched as widely as those shows when we were kids, or shared between generations.

There are all sorts of interesting conversations about changes in the way that we consume media these days, but I'm most fascinated with how it's separating the cultural world of kids and adults.

People occasionally suggest I write a YA novel, and (aside from not actually wanting to do that sort of work) there's just no way I could reasonably capture teens social media lives these days. Even just ten years ago I probably could have done a passable job of portraying how kids interact with each other, but now the way they use social media is a total mystery to me. And I know teens a hell of a lot better than most adults I know.

[chelseagirl]

Hurray!

Also, isn't it funny how moving totally makes you realize half of the things you've been hanging onto for ages are not actually necessary? When we moved to a larger apartment we somehow managed to get rid of so much stuff . . .

[lunabee34]

LOL

Yes!

I love that part of moving. I am a sucker for getting rid of things.

[spikedluv]

Congrats on finding a house you like and making the offer! I hope you don't have to wait long to hear back, and that it's good news, of course.

[lunabee34]

Me too!

They've already made a counteroffer and we countered and now we're waiting to hear again. This is exhausting. LOL