Reading and Watching

[lunabee34]

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is so good. It's about the intersecting lives of three women--a peasant, Wanda; the daughter of a moneylender, Miryem; and Irina, a woman forced to marry the tsar. Novik plays with fairytale elements: the power of a name, spinning straw into gold, magic, transformation. She also gives Miryem and her family a rich Jewish history and community that play a profound role in the story.

This book brought me to tears multiple times, and it made me smile, and it made me jealous of all the beautifully crafted sentences.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. I thoroughly enjoyed Uprooted, but Spinning Silver is an order of magnitude better.



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Diana & Persis by Louisa May Alcott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an unfinished manuscript of four chapters plus an introductory note with some biographical details about Alcott that help contextualize the manuscript (such as her sister May's career as an artist). The first chapter is almost entirely dialogue, the second is epistolary, and the final two chapters are traditional prose. I really like what's there, but it's very clear that the manuscript is unfinished. Chapter 3 is a thread left dangling, and chapter 4 comes out of nowhere with whatever would have segued from 3 to 4 missing. It's worth a read, though, especially for Alcott's ideas about women and art and female communities of artists.



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Gotham

This is a really satisfying episode. This has pretty much been the Penguin show for me with side dishes of Fish Moony, Barbara, Lee, and bb!Bruce, so I was really happy for Penguin and Ed to get such wonderful moments. I love that Penguin is so upset about the destruction of Gotham that he refuses to leave; in his own twisted way, he's just as much indebted to and responsible for the city as Bruce is. I love both impassioned speeches he gives on the topic but especially the one to Jim. And then when Ed stays, too, my heart grew three sizes in my chest. Love it. Then when Penguin loses his eye, Ed takes care of him; he's genuinely sorry that he froze instead of flinging the grenade away. Finally, that scene where they both to go stab each other and decide against it is golden, golden, golden.

We see the heroes' walk from the opening episode. Yay! I really like that the people of Gotham united together are what ultimately defeat the invasion; that was a very nice touch. Gotham may need a Dark Knight, but it is also a force to be reckoned with in its own right.

I realize that Bruce has to fuck it up between him and Selina for their future relationship to make sense, but it sucks. Selina is finally on board and committed, and he just walks away, just like her mom. He abandons her, and he does it with a note, which reminds me that they are still children, but such a dick move.

The emergence of Bruce's connection with bats.

I really love all the stuff with Barbara and Lee getting along. I mean, I didn't have to rush the ending of my story so much to get it posted before this episode, and I even could have made it canon compliant because WOW. It's like the show *wants* me to write a fucked up family for the three of them. I just can't believe they let Barbara live. Fuck, yes!!!! I am shocked, shocked.

Alfred's okay!

Honestly, I am not sure why this isn't the finale. It feels like a finale. The next episode almost feels superfluous. For it to work, everyone's going to need to be like a decade older; it won't make any sense for bb!Bruce to come back and be the Dark Knight. IDK I'm reserving judgement.