Stuff and things

[lunabee34]

1. I had my post-tenure review today over Zoom. It went well. I'm crossing my fingers for the same positive reception to my application for full professor in the fall.

2.
Friday: Howliday Inn chapter 6; draw a picture of all the dogs crowding around Chester and Harold. Write--what are Max and Georgette planning to do?

Monday: Howliday Inn chapter 7; draw a picture of Harold by Chester's empty cage; write--what does Harrison say happened to Chester?

Fiona's teacher is giving them more robust online work now, so she's doing twenty minutes a day on two sites, one for reading and one for math. She's also being given an art assignment and a writing assignment by her teacher now.

Tuesday: Howliday Inn chapter 8; draw a picture of the food bowl message; write--how does Harold's investigation go?

3. We saw a box turtle in the ditch. Yay!!

4. John Oliver achieved his epic painting of rat pornography. The acquisition certainly brought joy to our household. :)

5.

Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings by Juana Inés de la Cruz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this in an American Women's Lit class as an undergrad. I really enjoyed the intro about Sor Juana's life and her prose apologia of women as intellectual beings (she was a pretty brave badass in championing the equal intellectual capabilities of women and their God-given right to exercise them). I find her play about the conversion of the native people to be interesting; she highlights the similarities between their religion and Christianity. I also like some of her shorter poems, especially the ones in which she is being funny or poking fun. Her magnum opus, though, is a slog; it's an interminable poem that showcases her knowledge of science and classical literature, and it is extremely boring.



View all my reviews

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this; it's a collection of retellings of Asian fairytales, and some of them are retold in really fascinating ways (all the traditional remix options here: new setting, new time period, new tone, new POV, missing scene). It's written for a YA audience, but with the exception of two stories, I don't think it reads like a YA collection. I particularly enjoy the stories that contain science fiction elements.



View all my reviews

Comments

[lunabee34]

I don't know how it's labelled exactly, but according to their bios at the end, most of the contributors are YA authors, and there's no cussing or sex or really overt violence (although death is a theme for some of the stories).

And thank you!

[nyctanthes]

Heh, well I am a prolific curser, even in front of my children, so it would be hypocritical to worry about language. And there's a lot of implied violence and overt death in YA. I think there always has been? But my daughter definitely has firm reading (and TV watching) boundaries when it comes to sex. Sometimes she'll ask about something I'm reading or watching and looks interested. I inform her, "It might be ok for you, but it mentions sex." So far, her answer is to scurry away.

So far!

[lunabee34]

Yeah, we curse in front of our kids, too. LOL I mean, Emma's 17 so it doesn't really matter (to me), but I try to always caveat to Fiona that these are grownup words that she can't say.

There are a couple of places where it's implied that sex is had, but nothing graphic at all or even remotely sexual is mentioned.