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goss.

2. The video for Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down."

3.

Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A.S. Byatt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an exceptionally well written collection of short stories. Much of Byatt's writing is preoccupied with the same themes: transformation (both physical and emotional after some sort of loss or life change), visual art and visual artists, ways of seeing. This collection grapples with all those issues. Each story is preceded by a work of visual art which I am assuming inspired the story that follows.

"Crocodile Tears" is about a woman whose beloved husband dies; in response she runs away to a town in France and meets someone else who has experienced loss. A five star story.

"A Lamia in the Cevennes" is about an artist who is trying to discover how to paint a certain kind of blue and contains the exquisite line about the artist at work: "He was happy, in one of the ways in which human beings are happy." Five stars.

"Cold" is one of the finest stories Byatt has written, on par with "A Stone Woman." In it, an ice maiden falls in love with a desert prince. Deeply concerned with upending fairy tale tropes and with the theme of transformation. A thousand stars.

"Baglady" is the only dud for me. Maybe 2 stars? I see that Byatt is going for horror, but I'm not horrified. I'm just bored.

"Jael" is one I hate to say too much about because the brief story works best unspoiled. It touches on another theme that appears more than once in Byatt's work (monstrosity and terror lurking underneath the placid memory of childhood) and reminds me of "The Thing in the Forest" although the subject matter is really quite different. Five stars.

"Christ in the House of Mary and Martha" is another brief story about which little should be known before reading. It concludes with a wonderful moment of grace for all the characters. Five stars.

View all my reviews

4. Lucifer

Episode 3

Ella's religious crisis and Dan's despair make me so sad. They are both struggling really hard, and I feel bad for Dan especially. He has no hope left. He's going to get himself into trouble circumventing the rules.

Linda is very naturally freaking out about being pregnant. I feel bad for Amenadiel here; he needs to give her space, but he's also looking for a way to belong, and this just pushes him out again.

I can't believe the priest is willing to kill people to hurt Lucifer. That seems a little counterproductive, yes? Also, that suicide scene is really graphic. Hello, Netflix. LOL

Hell yes to the Portishead. That is a criminally underused song.

Episode 4

I love the humor in this show. Ella: "Lucifer was decapitated?!" Amenadiel: "A Mini Deel."

Eve is fascinating. I really like her character. She found a way out of heaven because of Amenadiel's evangelizing (which cracks me up) and wants to pick back up with Lucifer. I love that she is so charming and kind; she endears herself to everyone around her, so much so that the random waitress in the bar saves her. And, of course, she has no problem accepting the supernatural side of Lucifer which makes her really attractive to him at this point.

I love Maze moving in with Linda. I'm so glad they're focusing on that relationship so much this season.