lunabee34

1. I got home yesterday and slept in my own bed on clean sheets, and it was glorious.

I had been very anxious about this conference; I know many of you travel frequently, but I don't, and I was worried about basically every step of the process. LOL But it all worked out fine, and I think I will be more confident the next time this sort of opportunity arises.

2. Fiona got second place in the poetry competition at the Beta Convention, which qualifies her to go the National Beta Convention competition! It's being held in Savannah this year, so she'll definitely get to go; she didn't go last year despite qualifying because it was too far away. We are very proud of her. :)

3. I think we have finally found a regimen of meds that is working for Sammy's asthma. He takes an antiviral pill twice a day followed by an OTC supplement that is also an antiviral. He is such a good kitty. I shake the pill bottle, and he comes running and lets me pick him up. I put him on his back in my lap with his head against my chest and pop open his mouth, and he swallows down his pill with no fighting. Then he runs to go get his next med which is in paste form. Originally, we bought this med as a chew, and he would have nothing to do with it. We mixed it in his food, ground it up and mixed it with water, whatever--he would not eat it. So, I bought it as a paste with the intention of just holding him down and squirting it down his throat if necessary. Indeed, he would not eat it at first, but after a week of squirting it down his throat, Sammy decided his paste is the bomb, and now he begs for it.

We also have acquired a kitty inhaler but not had to use it yet. We've been getting him used to the mask, and he doesn't seem to mind it. We'll see.

4. When A. S. Byatt died, I didn't have the chance to make a proper post acknowledging how much her writing has meant to me since I encountered it decades ago. I'll link my Byatt reading tag here because I talk at much greater length in each of those posts about her novels and short story collections than I will here, especially Possession. That book was a game changer for me when I first encountered it as a college freshman and remains very special to me. It encapsulates like nothing else I have ever read the joys and frustrations of literary scholarship. The Potter Quartet is a structural masterpiece; I remember the moment when I was reading the final book and I realized what Byatt had done structurally with the way each book is introduced and the chronology and the awe I felt at that realization. And then, always, the words--such beautiful, beautiful words--sentences to read over and over again because they're too lovely to be done with quickly. I'm sad there will be no new words but glad the ones she gave us are words I want to visit again and again.

5. And last not but least, amejisuto sent me a wonderful early Christmas present--Brent Spiner's Fan-Fiction and a beautiful bookmark that says, "I have been and always shall be your friend." <3

I also got my first Christmas card of the season from troisoiseaux!

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I begin this book so enchanted with the Wellwoods--with Humphrey and Olive and their lovely family and her writing and the community of artists with which they've surrounded themselves. But I grow ever more disenchanted with them all as the novel progresses, which I suppose is exactly the point of a fin de siecle novel that culminates in what is arguably the biggest disillusionment of the Western world.

By the end of the novel, I am furious with Olive and Humphrey and Herbert Methley (may he expire of the pox), and Benedict Fludd could have walked into the waves so much sooner for me. I think this book has a lot of interesting things to say about what it means to have ideals that you do or do not attempt to actually live by or that you only give lip service to for your own ends. Methley's preaching free love because he wants to sleep with everyone and not have to pay any consequences. Olive and Humphrey say they care about the poor but do nothing to actually help people in a lasting, meaningful way (except for rescuing Philip; that's their one truly philanthropic act). They are progressive but give no thought to the education of their daughters.

Tom's story arc is so tragic. He's bullied and assaulted, and he has PTSD, and he's living in a world that doesn't recognize what happened to him as a problem.

The women interest me most--Dorothy and Elsie and Griselda and Violet and Imogen and the rest. I think Dorothy is probably my favorite character. Her fierce drive resonates deeply with me. I'm so glad that so many of the women are able to achieve at least part of what they want and experience some happiness and fulfillment.

Excellent, excellent read and a tour de force (ha, ha, ha, I pun) through the literary and intellectual movements of the latter decades of the 19th century and the first two decades of the twentieth.



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The Tyrant's Tomb by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I am convinced that Apollo is going to choose to remain human at the end of his trials. Zeus intended turning him human to knock him down a peg, but he did not, I suspect, intend Apollo to be learning the lessons he's learning. Every lesson he learns about how petty he was as a god is also a lesson he's learning about how petty his father is and all the other gods are. Every lesson he learns about his own cruelty is a lesson he's learning about the cruelty of the other deities. I cannot imagine him wanting to go back to being what he was or wanting to go back to hanging out with gods who are just like he was even if he manages to retain what he's learned in a divine form.





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( spoilers for Tyrant's Tomb )

1. Fiona turned six on Monday. I can't believe she's that old. It is such a surreal feeling watching your kids grow up, and by surreal, I mean guaranteed to make you feel extremely old. LOL

2. We are going through a re-org at my university, and our chair has been promoted, leaving that position vacant. I am really gratified that multiple colleagues have suggested that I apply or assumed I was throwing my hat in the ring and expressed support for my candidacy. I have worked extremely hard to build my professional reputation, and that vote of confidence feels really good. I'm not going to apply for two reasons. I'm not ready to give up my flexible schedule. I actually wouldn't mind the 12 month contract part; you all know I get really antsy and bored over the summer when I'm not working, so that part of it would probably be good for me. It's the 40+ hours a week part that I'm not interested in (and it would be + because the job would involve a fair amount of travel among campuses). I would have to exercise either before or after work, which is a problem for me in either direction. I also want to be flexible while Fiona's still so young. I want to be able to attend her events and pick her up from school and etc. The second reason is that I just don't feel ready yet; I have gotten a good foundation in how the upper echelons work by serving on Senate for many years and chairing and serving on university-wide committees. I could do the job at this point, but it would have more of a learning curve than I'd like. Ideally, I'd like to be Assistant Chair for awhile first and get experience that way. If the Assistant Chair position ever comes open, I will 100% apply for that position, but I will probably wait until later in my career to try for Chair.

3. Josh is away for an out-of-state conference, so Emma and I started watching Stranger Things on Sunday night. We have one episode left. LOL I haven't blown through a TV show like this in a long time. I actually watched the first four episodes when it first came out, and I just stopped for some reason. I am boggling at myself now because it's so good and so gripping, I don't know why I did that. All I can think is that I must have been overwhelmed by how much TV we were trying to keep up with at the time and anxious about all the child harm/trauma.

( spoilers for Stranger Things )

Don't spoil me for the season one finale or season two please!

4. ( The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt )

5. ( spoilers for the last three episodes of Lucifer )

I am extremely satisfied with this season, and I really hope we get another. Does anybody know if there will be another season?

6. ( spoilers for Jessica Jones season 2 episode 11 )

Does anybody know where The Defenders fits into the Jessica Jones timeline?

Please don't spoil me for JJ season 3. :)

1. This birthday message from ponders_life, and this one from goss.

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

3. ( reading A. S. Byatt )

4. ( watching Lucifer )

1. We have eaten so well the last few days. A couple days ago, we had roasted broccoli and roasted butternut squash with baked chicken thighs and sauteed dandelion greens and vidalia onions. Last night we made a ham. Josh and I try to do a fair amount of cooking large cuts of meat like Boston butt or a beef roast and getting multiple meals out of it. A 12 lb ham cost $18, and we'll get at least five meals out of it. We crusted the ham with brown sugar, and Josh made dressing to go with it. OMG, it was so freaking good.

2. Have a Good Omens rec:

Ins and Outs by misbegotten
Aziraphale/Crowley
2646 words
Missing scene from the show

3. ( A. S. Byatt's In the Shadow of the Sun )

Babel Tower by A.S. Byatt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love this book. I have loved each book in this series more than the previous book. Babel Tower was a quicker read for me than the others, I think because Frederica has a real, tangible problem rather than an existential one (although it is that as well). She's married a man who keeps her shut away in a country house; he won't let her visit her friends or work, and when she finally tries to do both those things, he turns violent. I never realized how difficult it was to obtain a divorce in England as late as the 60s. I just kept being astonished by how Frederica wants what seems absolutely normal to me--to work and be married and have a kid, to be allowed to exercise her intellectual abilities, to have autonomy and agency--but which is so hard won in the the time period in which she lives. Her realization that she loves her child deeply and fiercely while also being limited by him and resentful of the way he causes others to impose their expectations on her rings very, very true to me.

The other main plot point is the publication of a book and its subsequent trial for obscenity. I won't say too much on that because the identity of the author is a bit of a mystery at first, but it's very well done.

Very much looking forward to the final installment in this series.



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The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really like this book, especially after being disappointed by The Game.

The novel follows the intertwining lives of the Potter family members and the people in their orbit. Bill Potter is a teacher at a boarding school; his wife is meek and cowed by his constant anger. Their son Marcus is dissociative, seeing the world in mathematical shapes and intersections of light that deeply frighten and threaten to obliterate him. Marcus is befriended by another teacher at the school who believes that Marcus is some kind of prophet with access to spiritual knowledge. The eldest Potter daughter is Stephanie; she embarks on a combative romance with a local clergyman Daniel. The younger Potter daughter is Frederica, and she marches all over the pages, falling in love with people who are entirely unsuitable for her and being pursued in her turn by the entirely unsuitable.

The backdrop of the novel is a play that Alexander (also a teacher at the boys' school) has written about The Virgin Queen Elizabeth that is debuting just as the current Queen Elizabeth is being crowned. Putting on the play takes up a great deal of the action of the plot.

The writing is dense and layered with tons of historical and literary allusions that are a sheer pleasure to sift through. I absolutely adore the way Byatt stacks clause upon clause, the way she revels in a list (I must as I tend to write that way in my fiction as well LOL).

I am genuinely interested in all the characters and what's going to happen to them. I have immediately begun the next book in the series.



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1. I realized that I didn't leave enough outside the spoiler cut when I reviewed Hard by Wayne Hoffman. It's a novel about the gay community in NYC in the late 90s that would be right up a lot of y'all's alley.

2. I am overhauling my tags; I've been through almost all my existing tags and cleaned them up. Now I'm going to start at the beginning of my journal and make sure it's all tagged appropriately. I am giving myself permission to only do this on DW and not worry about LJ.

3. I read another book, Ragnarok: The End of the Gods by A. S. Byatt. ( SPOILERS )

4. I just finished my first week as gluten free, and it's been a bit of a mixed bag. When I got home from NYC, I went through the pantry, fridge, and freezer and piled on the kitchen table all the gluten containing food. Some items were not clearly marked. If a quick google search could not tell me the gluten status of the product, I put it in the pile. I did not want to spend hours on the phone with the companies who manufacture all the random jars of spices in our cupboard. Next I added the plastic dishes and implements, tupperware, melamine bowls, all the cast iron and non stick, the colanders. ( cut for length )

1. Sarah Waters Tipping the Velvet
This was an exquisite read. I mean, Victorian lesbians. I don't need much more than that to get excited about a book, but there happens to be quite a bit more going on here. The language is so gorgeous and evocative, and Waters walks so well that thin line of writing in the voice of the period with all its slang and colloquialisms and leaving the reader going, "Do what now?" In fact, I think anyone writing a period piece would do well to emulate her style; she explains when she needs to with no Giles-in-the-library info dump and trusts her readers to figure most things out for themselves through context. I love love love love the focus on drag in this novel. It's complex and complicated and, yes, hot. Go read!!

2. Diana Gabaldon Outlander
I may have started reading this yesterday and then stayed up all night to finish it. I didn't even realize it was that late until I closed the book with a satisfied smile and saw that it was nearly four. LOL This is very engaging and fun and remarkably close to the trajectory of most of my own personal fantasies--through some magical or scientifically improbable device, Lorraine gets deposited into the world of X and must make friends and fend for herself. I love the premise here (that Claire is thrust backwards in time and must learn to live in 18the century Scotland) and must not allow myself to borrow the next books in the series or I'll never finish slogging through Tennyson.

3. A.S. Byatt The Children's Book
*flaily hands* What to say about this that isn't just garbled and incoherent noises of utter joy? From the wonderfully twisty narrative and the tales-within-a-tale that twine through to the commentary on historical events and issues of the end of the Victorian era to the sleekly beautiful turns of phrase--this is a must read for everybody. And the end! Which I mustn't say anything about! But the end!

4. Ludmilla Petrushevskaya There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby
This is a collection of Russian short stories that deal with the supernatural--ghosts, apocalypses, fairy tales, the afterlife. I fear that in some cases the stories suffer from translation and that my reading suffers from my lack of familiarity with Russian folklore, but overall I greatly enjoyed this collection. So many of the stories are incredibly haunting and the style is so spare and stripped down. I particularly enjoy the apocalypse ones, even more so for the ambiguity that surrounds each situation. Why is the world ending and by whose hands and what's really to be done about it? These stories are bleak, but with an almost ambivalent hope that keeps them from being too dark to enjoy.