lunabee34

1. I got the most wonderful poems in the post from minoanmiss. Thank you! They are going to decorate my office.

2. I've been rereading the Murderbot books. I've finished all of them except Network Effect, which I just started today, and the most recently published one, which I've never read before. I love Murderbot so much.

3.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had never read this play and had somehow gotten a completely wrong impression of it. I thought it was long and tragic and deeply serious and full of soliloquies about the nature of power and monstrosity; instead, it's really short, mostly ridiculous, and a pretty breezy read. I mean, the postcolonial reading of the play appeals to me; there's definitely some heft and interest in interpreting Prospero as the colonizer and Ariel and Caliban as the colonized. (I also like Gonzalo's reference to Montaigne's "Of Cannibals.")

I suspect this is much more fun to watch than read; I bet the buffoonery is much funnier.

I'm a little confused by what happens at the end to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. Are they left behind on the island? Are they pardoned and they leave to go back to Milan? 2025 ETA: Stefano and Trinculo go back with Prospero et al, but it's not clear what happens to Caliban. I think they just leave him behind.

I'd like to see a stage production of this play, especially the gender-flipped one with Helen Mirren.



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The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book makes me so sad and angry. I can't believe the conservatorship she was put under is any way legal. I'm glad she's back in control of her own life.

Really potent commentary on the sexual double standard, being a woman in the entertainment industry, the legacy of family trauma, and mental illness.



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Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This starts out really slowly. I was bored for about the first hundred pages. Once the book circles down from its aerial view of the family and dives more deeply into each individual character, I found myself hooked.

This is a deeply tragic book. I feel so sorry for most of the characters. Tony is forced to marry someone she doesn't love (even though her family wouldn't acknowledge the pressure they're putting on her) rather than the man she does (although I'm not certain she'd have been happy marrying that guy given the class/wealth disparity between them); then that guy turns out to be a scoundrel and a cheat. The second guy she marries is a lazy good-for-nothing, and her daughter's husband ends up a scoundrel and a deserter. Christian clearly has some sort of mental disorder as well as OCD, but I also think he has autoimmune disorders that would account for the nerve pain he experiences that everyone dismisses.

I ended up really enjoying this despite the slow start.



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3. the future is (a benevolent black hole) by ClassicMelancholy
Stranger Things
Steddie
Slow, happy getting together

standing up the dead by heartofwinterfell
Stranger Things
Max/Lucas, blink-and-you'll-miss-it Steddie
Max and Eddie dimension hopping post-Vecna. I love how things change in each world they visit.

1. We got Margaret settled into the assisted living facility on Monday, and she's done so well. By the end of that first day, she already had a gaggle of friends she was hanging out with, and they have activities all day long. She's so busy, we all have trouble catching her on the phone.

I think all of us had been waiting on tenterhooks and scared that she'd react poorly, but thankfully she didn't.

One down, one to go!

2. I don't know if y'all remember a few years ago when we hit a bear on the highway and totaled our car. Last week, Fiona and I were driving down the highway, and we saw a little bear cub frolicking on the side of the road at the exact spot where we had the accident. It freaked me out because where baby is, mama is not far behind. But we escaped unscathed this time.

3. I didn't post any real details about this book in the review, but I'd love to discuss this book!

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is absolutely masterful. I love a good Neo-Victorian, and this is the best one I've read maybe ever. The writing is beautiful, the focus on all the details that ground a reader in the 19th century (slang, dress, the grime) is amazing, and the sense of place (London, the asylum, the countryside forty miles from London) are all exquisitely drawn.

I love how twisty and turny this novel is. I don't want to say too much about the plot for fear of ruining it, but there's such an excellent payoff in the third act.

Highly, highly recommended.



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4. I'd love to discuss this one with anyone who's read it, too.

McTeague: A Story Of San Francisco by Frank Norris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a book in which deeply unpleasant things happen to deeply unpleasant people. The characters (and the narrative itself) are racist and sexist; child abuse goes unremarked and treated as a matter of course. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and murder feature prominently.

And, yet, Norris is a compelling writer. His descriptions of San Francisco and later of the desert are vividly written. His portrait of an unorthodox romance between two elderly characters is an oasis of sweetness amidst all the horror.

I enjoyed parts of this book but will not read it again.



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1. I have gotten a bounty of Christmas cards from goss, sallymn, spikedluv, and aurumcalendula!

I also got the most delectable and beautiful chocolate bar with dried figs on top from sheafrotherdon; a gloriously curated package from executrix full of books (including a collection of Beerbohm essays I can't wait to dive into), notebooks, a hand-knitted shawl, and other wonderful sundries; and a package from misbegotten with a Ouida sticker she designed, a makeup bag detailing the epic love story of Sam and Dean, bespoke stationery with my name on it, and other happies.

Thanks, all. Feeling the love! <3

2. If you are impatiently waiting Yuletide reveals and need something to read, check out these two stories.

Hark the Herald Angel Snarks
by misbegotten
SPN all-human AU
Sam/Gabriel, Dean/Cas
5488 words

The Man Who Forgot
by slightweasel
HP
Harry/Draco
Amnesia, mpreg
250k

3. ( reviews of pedagogy books, poetry, Victorian, etc. )

4. I can't believe I forgot to tell you all the most surreal best part of the SACS conference: 8:30 in the morning waiting for the second general session to start in a room that can seat more than 9000 and will be close to full by the time the session starts at 9:00 while colored lights zoom around overhead and the sound system blasts to the gathered middle-aged academics, "I didn't come here to party / I didn't come here to stay / I came to leave with somebody / I only came for the cake." Ah, yes. Truly the jam of the administrator preparing her institution for reaffirmation and the development of a Quality Enhancement Plan. At 8:30 in the morning.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The prose is gorgeous. I don't really like any of the characters, but the words are beautiful.



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( poll cut for spoilers for the novel )

( Goodreads Review )

So now I want somebody to write me the story of what happens to Briseis after The Iliad, and I want somebody to write me the story of what happens to Helen after The Iliad, and I want somebody to write me the story of what Penelope and Odysseus's relationship is really like after he returns. I want Briseis to have a happy ending. Maybe she ends up being owned by the same person who enslaves Andromache, and they become friends, and when Andromache is freed (per The Aeneid), Briseis comes along with her and is also freed. Or maybe Briseis ends up married to Neoptolemus or another Myrmidon and gains some power and control that way. IDK We get this tantalizing glimpse of Helen and Menelaus in The Odyssey, and they seem totally fine with each other, totally cool, and I really want to know if that's true or just a front. Regardless of whether Menelaus is copacetic, what do the Spartans think of her? Do they resent her? Does she just dose everybody with that drug so that no one is angry with her? Gotta say, I love the idea that Helen is just routinely dosing the water supply with drugs that make everyone forget they're pissed about the Trojan War. And finally, Odysseus cannot get out of battle mode; I really like the way Miller's Circe puts that aspect of his characterization at the forefront. I have a hard time believing he's going to seamlessly transition from the last twenty years of his life to king of peaceful Ithaca. What do y'all think?

The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an 18th century epistolary novel based on a real life incident in which a popular, upstanding young woman in New England got pregnant out of wedlock and died in childbirth along with the baby.

It's so difficult for me to tell whether Foster is being as subversive as I read her being. She definitely toes the party line: Eliza is punished for her indiscretion with death, and before she dies, she repents and laments the folly of her ways at great length. But Foster also paints Eliza as someone who wants autonomy and the ability to make *real* choices and who is set up to fail by the people and the circumstances around her. It's really hard not to think that Foster is trying to critique the system just a little.

One thing that really stands out to me is the degree of scrutiny that women were subjected to; Eliza's every move is dissected by her family and friends and people in the community, and I cannot imagine living under that microscope (and I have mostly lived in small, Southern towns LOL).

I also think the treatment of the villain, the rake Sanford, is interesting. He's the bad guy, but he's also sympathetic from time to time, with Foster sometimes painting him as a victim of the system as well.

This is a quick read and an easy read for an 18th century text, and it's free to read on the internet (which is where I read it), so I highly recommend you all do that. It's a fascinating look at social mores in late 18th century America.



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( Spoilers for the first couple Terminator movies )

1. Y'all were so right! Always Be My Maybe is delightful. ( spoilers )

2. ( children's books roundup for June )

3. ( Where Three Roads Meet: The Myth of Oedipus )

4. ( fic recs in MCU, Guardian, and Stranger Things )

1. Books what I have read.

( The Tempest and Leah on the Offbeat )

2. ( backlog of Lucifer reviews )

3. ( backlog of Gotham reviews )