Hump Day Happenings
Jun. 2nd, 2021 07:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. When I was admiring goss's Vampire Gardener, I said that I would buy a thousand postcards with this image on them. Imagine my delight and surprise when I received in the mail from minoanmiss a stack of gorgeous, glossy postcards of goss's drawing with this note: "I couldn't send 1000 but here are 50!" What an excellent gift. *loves*
2. Lately I've been reading mnmlscholar, the stationery blog of what I think is a high school teacher. I can't tell where he's located, but I really enjoy reading about his fountain pen use and even more his teaching. He's got to be at a private school because I can't imagine his focus on LGBTQ issues flying in, say, a public high school in the deep South. It makes me happy to know that some kids somewhere are getting the education I wish Emma had gotten; it would have made such a difference for her to have any one teacher say something positive/accepting about being gay. Anyway, check him out.
3. Nature observed: young deer wandering through yard; another indigo bunting (we now have two males and two females living in the yard); downy woodpeckers; some tiny bird I couldn't identify screeching its head off until a male cardinal basically landed on top of it (that is enough of that, young sir! this is my yard! LOL).
4. We watched the final episode of Escape to the Chateau. Filming was stopped because of the pandemic. I hope it won't be too long before they are able to release new episodes. In this last episode, Dick was using a fountain pen with a hooded nib, but I couldn't tell what brand it was. :)
5.
The Feminine Political Novel in Victorian England Feminine Political Novel in Victorian England by Barbara Leah Harman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Really clearly and accessibly written with engaging authorial voice. A pleasure to read.
Harman looks at the intersection of public and private lives of women in a handful of novels by Bronte, Gaskell, Meredith, Gissing, and Robins. I think the inclusion of two male writers in this study is interesting as it allows for a comparison of the way women and men treat this issue.
View all my reviews
The Victorian Novel by Louis James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was all set to rank this highly and suggest it as a resource for my students as our library has a digital copy of it. But then, James misspells the title of one of Ouida's novels and Thrushcross Grange of Wuthering Heights fame as Thrushcroft Grange, and he has Mary Higgins dying of lung illness rather than Bessy in North and South. These are just the errors I caught; I have no way of knowing what other errors exist in reference to texts/authors outside my wheelhouse, so I can't recommend this to students.
It's such a pity, too, because he includes material about Ouida and Marie Corelli and Geraldine Jewsbury and other female writers often not explored in a book of this kind.
I'm reading the 2006 version, and there's a 2008 version, so maybe these errors are corrected there. IDK
View all my reviews
Amelia Bedelia Sets Sail by Herman Parish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
As always, super cute. The kiddo enjoyed this nautical adventure.
View all my reviews
Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is very much recognizably an Atwood novel; she deals with a lot of the same themes that appear in her other works (identity, relationships, gender), but it feels a lot more like Stephen King to me (in a good way; Full Dark No Stars flavor). It begins with a woman with cancer whose relationship is ending and then slowly, slowly veers into a kind of horror/thriller, so slowly that the reader doesn't quite realize it's happening until it's too late for the protagonist to extricate herself.
Atwood is a master of juxtaposition, and she uses it to great effect here.
And, wow, what an ending.
View all my reviews
True Stories by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This collection dovetails nicely with Bodily Harm; she deals with many of the same themes and the same settings as she does in that novel.
I particularly enjoy "True Stories," "Landcrab I," Landcrab II," and "Spelling" (which is one of my favorites of her poems.
View all my reviews
goss's Vampire Gardener, I said that I would buy a thousand postcards with this image on them. Imagine my delight and surprise when I received in the mail from minoanmiss a stack of gorgeous, glossy postcards of goss's drawing with this note: "I couldn't send 1000 but here are 50!" What an excellent gift. *loves*2. Lately I've been reading mnmlscholar, the stationery blog of what I think is a high school teacher. I can't tell where he's located, but I really enjoy reading about his fountain pen use and even more his teaching. He's got to be at a private school because I can't imagine his focus on LGBTQ issues flying in, say, a public high school in the deep South. It makes me happy to know that some kids somewhere are getting the education I wish Emma had gotten; it would have made such a difference for her to have any one teacher say something positive/accepting about being gay. Anyway, check him out.
3. Nature observed: young deer wandering through yard; another indigo bunting (we now have two males and two females living in the yard); downy woodpeckers; some tiny bird I couldn't identify screeching its head off until a male cardinal basically landed on top of it (that is enough of that, young sir! this is my yard! LOL).
4. We watched the final episode of Escape to the Chateau. Filming was stopped because of the pandemic. I hope it won't be too long before they are able to release new episodes. In this last episode, Dick was using a fountain pen with a hooded nib, but I couldn't tell what brand it was. :)
5.
The Feminine Political Novel in Victorian England Feminine Political Novel in Victorian England by Barbara Leah HarmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Really clearly and accessibly written with engaging authorial voice. A pleasure to read.
Harman looks at the intersection of public and private lives of women in a handful of novels by Bronte, Gaskell, Meredith, Gissing, and Robins. I think the inclusion of two male writers in this study is interesting as it allows for a comparison of the way women and men treat this issue.
View all my reviews
The Victorian Novel by Louis JamesMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was all set to rank this highly and suggest it as a resource for my students as our library has a digital copy of it. But then, James misspells the title of one of Ouida's novels and Thrushcross Grange of Wuthering Heights fame as Thrushcroft Grange, and he has Mary Higgins dying of lung illness rather than Bessy in North and South. These are just the errors I caught; I have no way of knowing what other errors exist in reference to texts/authors outside my wheelhouse, so I can't recommend this to students.
It's such a pity, too, because he includes material about Ouida and Marie Corelli and Geraldine Jewsbury and other female writers often not explored in a book of this kind.
I'm reading the 2006 version, and there's a 2008 version, so maybe these errors are corrected there. IDK
View all my reviews
Amelia Bedelia Sets Sail by Herman ParishMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
As always, super cute. The kiddo enjoyed this nautical adventure.
View all my reviews
Bodily Harm by Margaret AtwoodMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is very much recognizably an Atwood novel; she deals with a lot of the same themes that appear in her other works (identity, relationships, gender), but it feels a lot more like Stephen King to me (in a good way; Full Dark No Stars flavor). It begins with a woman with cancer whose relationship is ending and then slowly, slowly veers into a kind of horror/thriller, so slowly that the reader doesn't quite realize it's happening until it's too late for the protagonist to extricate herself.
Atwood is a master of juxtaposition, and she uses it to great effect here.
And, wow, what an ending.
View all my reviews
True Stories by Margaret AtwoodMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This collection dovetails nicely with Bodily Harm; she deals with many of the same themes and the same settings as she does in that novel.
I particularly enjoy "True Stories," "Landcrab I," Landcrab II," and "Spelling" (which is one of my favorites of her poems.
View all my reviews
