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Dec. 19th, 2021 06:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. Emma is 19! I scored a coup and got her a copy of Owl at Home which she was very pleased with.
I told her that when I was 19, I was already dating her dad and by that end of that year planning to marry him, so she better get on it. #lifechoices. She was not amused. *dies laughing*
2. I got a Christmas card fromoracne!
3.
Accepting Refuge by Victoria Janssen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really like this sequel. I am always more interested in the aftermath, in the rebuilding, than in the disaster and am always frustrated that so few books and TV shows are interested in showing that process. I love the trio settling into the utopic Refuge and making friends and accepting this place of comfort and rest.
View all my reviews
Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a really excellent overview of ecocriticism that defines what is a very broad term (housing many theoretical and practical points of view) through the lens of pastoral, wilderness, apocalypse, dwelling, and animals. This would be a fantastic textbook for an upper division level undergrad course or a grad course on the topic.
View all my reviews
Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth And The Environmental Tradition by Jonathan Bate
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Incredibly readable and incredibly important. Virtually every text about ecocriticism I've read in my latest research dive has referenced this book even if just to push back against Bate's conclusions (although more often than not in my sample, his conclusions are considered foundational and largely agreed with even by those who criticize him in some way). Highly recommended for anyone interested in Wordsworth and Romanticism (and to a lesser degree ecocriticism, but this should not be the first thing you read about ecocriticism as it does not provide a good understanding of the discipline, key terms, etc.).
View all my reviews
London Journal, 1762-1763 by James Boswell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, Boswell. I can't help but find him endearing even as I find him vexing at times. His constant refrain of "I'm not going to do the thing, totally not going to do the thing," followed by immediately doing the thing is very familiar to me. He's just very likeable; he wants to be good and be smart and be liked by important people. He wants to control his own life. He wants a cushy job where he doesn't have to do much but dress up fancy and be admired by pretty girls and parade about on horseback. He wants to be a successful writer. He's hobnobbing with greatness and totally starstruck.
Of course, he's also a product of his time and very sexist; when he contracts (or maybe just continues to have from a prior infection? this part is not clear to me from a modern medical standpoint) gonorrhea, he blames the woman he was sleeping with instead of realizing that he could be to blame. He's operating within the accepted understanding of the time which places the onus for sexually transmitted diseases on women and also insists that they know they are infected and are knowingly transmitting them.
But other than that sour note, I thoroughly enjoy Boswell's journal from this period. As someone who spends a lot of time reading material from hundreds of years ago, I am always struck by how much the same people have always been in a lot of ways, and I find that very comforting.
View all my reviews
I told her that when I was 19, I was already dating her dad and by that end of that year planning to marry him, so she better get on it. #lifechoices. She was not amused. *dies laughing*
2. I got a Christmas card from
oracne!3.
Accepting Refuge by Victoria JanssenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really like this sequel. I am always more interested in the aftermath, in the rebuilding, than in the disaster and am always frustrated that so few books and TV shows are interested in showing that process. I love the trio settling into the utopic Refuge and making friends and accepting this place of comfort and rest.
View all my reviews
Ecocriticism by Greg GarrardMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a really excellent overview of ecocriticism that defines what is a very broad term (housing many theoretical and practical points of view) through the lens of pastoral, wilderness, apocalypse, dwelling, and animals. This would be a fantastic textbook for an upper division level undergrad course or a grad course on the topic.
View all my reviews
Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth And The Environmental Tradition by Jonathan BateMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Incredibly readable and incredibly important. Virtually every text about ecocriticism I've read in my latest research dive has referenced this book even if just to push back against Bate's conclusions (although more often than not in my sample, his conclusions are considered foundational and largely agreed with even by those who criticize him in some way). Highly recommended for anyone interested in Wordsworth and Romanticism (and to a lesser degree ecocriticism, but this should not be the first thing you read about ecocriticism as it does not provide a good understanding of the discipline, key terms, etc.).
View all my reviews
London Journal, 1762-1763 by James BoswellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, Boswell. I can't help but find him endearing even as I find him vexing at times. His constant refrain of "I'm not going to do the thing, totally not going to do the thing," followed by immediately doing the thing is very familiar to me. He's just very likeable; he wants to be good and be smart and be liked by important people. He wants to control his own life. He wants a cushy job where he doesn't have to do much but dress up fancy and be admired by pretty girls and parade about on horseback. He wants to be a successful writer. He's hobnobbing with greatness and totally starstruck.
Of course, he's also a product of his time and very sexist; when he contracts (or maybe just continues to have from a prior infection? this part is not clear to me from a modern medical standpoint) gonorrhea, he blames the woman he was sleeping with instead of realizing that he could be to blame. He's operating within the accepted understanding of the time which places the onus for sexually transmitted diseases on women and also insists that they know they are infected and are knowingly transmitting them.
But other than that sour note, I thoroughly enjoy Boswell's journal from this period. As someone who spends a lot of time reading material from hundreds of years ago, I am always struck by how much the same people have always been in a lot of ways, and I find that very comforting.
View all my reviews
