Hurray, it's Friday!

[lunabee34]

1. Valentine's cards have been sent out! We can send mail to Australia and New Zealand again, so *all* my international peeps are getting cards, too. <3

2. I got a sweet Valentine's Day card from amejisuto. :) Thank you, friend.

3. I've been reading some stuff.

The Yonder Side of Sass and Texas by Joanna Beth Tweedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this book. The sense of place is masterfully evoked here, and the use of language--the rural patois--is absolutely wonderful. The characters are real and interesting, and the way everyone's lives intersect in this small town rings true to me. What also rings true is the way that home is both utterly oppressive and calls undeniably to Sass and Texas.



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The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm deeply shocked to discover that I don't so much like Sexton's poetry as a whole as I adore one volume of her poetry: Transformations. Transformations (in which she transforms the beloved Grimms fairytales, most notably, and arguably most successfully, Cinderella) is one of my absolute favorite collections of poems. The rest of it, not so much. I like isolated poems here and there ("Hutch," "Her Kind," and others), but on the whole, I don't care for much of the rest of her poetry. Which totally surprises me because I've spent the last few decades thinking of Sexton as one of my favorite poets, and turns out I only really like a single collection and could do without the rest of it. I'm not exactly sure how that happened. I must have read through this once when I received it as a teen and then only reread the poems from Transformations and the handful of others that get anthologized and that colored my memory of her poetry at large.



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4. I think Anne Sexton invented the fanfic trope Hanahaki Disease in her poem "The Love Plant."

5. Bless Feefers's heart. She had her jaw alignment stuff put in yesterday, and she started the concurrent invisalign treatment. It is A Lot going on in my baby girl's tiny little mouth. But she is handling it very well, and I am very proud of her. She is exceedingly brave, and already getting the hang of this new routine. *smishes her*

Comments

[tabaqui]

I hope all the mouth stuff goes along alright and doesn't get to be too much!

Was there a ban on mail to Australia and New Zealand....?

[lunabee34]

Thank you! Me too!

Yes, there was! It was very annoying. But it appears to be lifted for letters at least; not sure about packages.

[tabaqui]

How weird!
I sent an Xmas card to my friend in Australia and there were no issues, they didn't say anything about a ban......

Huh.

[lunabee34]

That is so weird; it went into effect before Christmas. My post office wouldn't let me mail any letters. I think you got lucky!

[tabaqui]

Either that or it's sitting in a bin somewhere......
"The U.S. Postal Service has TEMPORARILY suspended First Class Package International Service (as of September 3, 2021) and Priority Mail International (as of September 17, 2021)"

I think because i just sent a regular letter, not a package and not priority, that's why.

[lunabee34]

I hope it's not in a bin somewhere!

[gloss]

Aw, Fiona sounds like she's being a real trooper! That's wonderful.

[gloss]

PS having now googled and read "The Love Plant", I'm agog at the hanahaki-ness!

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

I am just like, wow. That is a some super coincidence there.

[lunabee34]

She is just a sweetheart!

[china_shop]

Yay Friday! And awwwww, yay for Feefers! ♥ ♥ ♥

[lunabee34]

She is just a doll. <3

[aphrodite_mine]

So glad you enjoyed Sass and Texas!

I have the sneaking suspicion that I feel similarly about Sexton, and if I revisited Plath, Plath.

[lunabee34]

I really did. My rural upbringing was not the same, but there's enough points of commonality that it felt familiar to me.

*nods nods*

It's weird going back to the beloveds of youth.

[princessofgeeks]

HUGS

With orthodontics it goes really fast. It will be over before you know it. <3

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

And a routine develops quickly. She's already getting used to it.

[kore]

Poets for some reason often suffer when all their stuff is jammed into one big collected volume (short stories seem to do better maybe? IDK why?) but that especially happens with Sexton. I read some of her books in isolation first -- Love Poems, Transformations, Pretty Ones -- and they were great. But somehow when you read all her stuff together....And LP and T were two of her most popular books, too (not the prizewinning ones tho, lol) so people who read those first on their own and then go on to the collected volume get a bit of a shock!

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

That make sense.

And also, I think as I get older, my interest in (patience, for? IDK) reading about her suicidal tendencies and her mental health episodes has waned.

[amejisuto]

Glad you liked the card, love! I got yours too, it's coming in today! Hope your little one adjusts to her mouth stuff. That sounds painful.

[lunabee34]

Yay!

Fortunately, she's not hurting too badly. The most it has been is a little uncomfortable.

<3

[minoanmiss]

Thank you for finding out we can send mail to the Antipodes again! I've been trying to find that info.

[lunabee34]

I don't know about packages, but letters are okay!

[spikedluv]

You are so on the ball with cards!

(I heard that Hillary had come up with a mug that says 'but her e-mails' and I love that! I wondered if you'd be interested?)

Fiona is such a trooper! I hope it goes quickly!

[lunabee34]

Ha ha ha! What a funny mug. I love it.

Fiona is already adjusting quite admirably. Yay!

[spikedluv]

I love that she's making money for her organization using that old refrain. A good FU.

[lunabee34]

Absolutely!

[corvidology]

Great to hear that the lovely Feefer is rolling with it!

[lunabee34]

She has always been good about medical stuff. Her sister, too.

[independence1776]

Aw, Fiona.

[lunabee34]

I know. Bless it.

[ariadne83]

Oh Feefers, keep on being awesome kiddo. Does she like getting letters?

[lunabee34]

She is so cool. LOL

She does like getting mail. <3

[archersangel]

about #5; i hope it all goes well!

[lunabee34]

Thank you thank you!

We're good so far. She has been very conscientious about it. :)