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The Color Purple

I will post my final review of the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker in this post.

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Puzzles and podcasts

An 18 000 piece puzzle takes a long time to complete. As much as I enjoy working on it in silence, sitting down and putting pieces together is prime time for listening to podcasts!

When I opened my Christmas gift from my brother in 2022 I got very excited. Inside I found an 18 000 piece puzzle for myself and my mom to work on. It is slightly bigger than the puzzles we usually do (around 1000-2000 pieces), but we were so excited to start working on it!

In my family, we have been puzzle fanatics for many years, and almost always have a puzzle in the works on our lounge table. For myself, working on a puzzle is almost therapeutic - it's an opportunity for me to shut off my brain and just focus on putting pieces together.

The silence of working on a puzzle does get tiring after a while, which is when I started listening to podcasts while puzzling. I enjoy true crime, and tend to go for this genre when choosing a podcast to listen to. In this post I will be bringing you along my journey of putting together the 18 000 piece puzzle while listening to interesting new podcasts!

30.9 Who Killed Daphne?

I have always enjoyed investigative podcasts, because they feel more in depth and therefore more interesting to me. I found the podcast Who Killed Daphne? on a list for the best investigative true crime podcasts, which instantly peaked my interest. The podcast is about the death of an investigative journalist, which sounded very interesting to me. I was also intrigued to listen to a podcast from Wondery, who seem to have many podcasts in this genre.

And so I started listening to the Who Killed Daphne? podcast, an investigative podcast about the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She was an anti-corruption activist and reported on political events and corruption in Malta, which ultimately led to her being assassinated in 2017.

Daphne's death led to a collection of journalists from different countries to publish "The Daphne Project", a collaboration to complete the investigative work she was never able to do herself. One of the journalists involved, Stephen Grey, is the host for the podcast.

Over six episodes, the story of Daphne and her reporting, and the work of multiple journalists involved in the Daphne project is told through interviews and stories. The structure of the podcast was easy to follow, and it made me keep listening. I enjoy listening to podcasts, as long as they keep me hooked and aren't too chatty.

One thing I dislike with this podcast in particular is how produced it feels. It uses suspenseful sound effects in an attempt to make certain interviews or stories feel more dramatic, which I personally am not a fan of. I like the story to speak for itself, without extra drama added to the mix. The dramatizing, although bearable in this podcast, makes me hesitant to listen to other podcasts by Wondery.

One thing I found interesting in Who Killed Daphne? was the Maltese accent, which I don't think I have heard much of before. The accent almost reminds me of the Swedish accent, but not the Finn-Swedish one. The podcast also contained other accents when journalists from the UK or France were speaking, but I personally did not find any of the accents or voices difficult to understand.

I did enjoy this podcast, and it helped me finish many parts of the 18 000 piece puzzle. 4/5!

7.11 Sweet Bobby

When I first started looking for investigative podcasts to listen to, the podcast Sweet Bobby caught my eye. The short description of the podcast explained its main plot: A woman got catfished by a man called Bobby for eight years. This was enough to reel me in.

The podcast tells the story of Kirat Assi, a marketer and radio host who lives in London. She was contacted by a man by the name of Bobby in 2009, and the two kept in contact for many years. Eventually Bobby would divorce his wife and confess his feelings for Kirat, and the two began dating online.

Eight year later, however, Kirat found out Bobby was not who he said he was. Bobby was actually played by Kirat's cousin, Simran Bhogal. Well, Bobby is in fact a real person, which Kirat found out in 2018. But that wasn't until she stood outside of his door, faced with the reality that whoever the Bobby she had been talking to for eight years was not the same Bobby that was standing in front of her.

Simran, the cousin, had been using Bobby's name and social media posts to deceive Kirat. What makes this story so interesting is the depth of Simran's catfishing operation. She had created up to 60 characters to play a role in Kirat and Bobby's circle, all used to convince Kirat that Bobby was real. Simran herself was a character in the plot, used as a real life confirmation for Bobby's existence.

Kirat's story is very heartfelt, and listening to her on the podcast made me feel truly sorry for her. I have had my fair share of friendships online, with people I thought I knew before their true identities were revealed. But nothing close to this has ever happened to me.

What drew me in to listening to this podcast was the fact that it was British. The podcast talks to Kirat and her close circle, who are part of the Sikh community, as well as many experts. Everyone who has their voice heard in the podcast has a different accent, which I didn't find difficult to understand.

The podcast itself is hosted by Alexi Mostrous, and it tells Kirat's story in six episodes. I must say, as much as the story is interesting, the podcast felt more like an audiobook. Alexi's role in the story isn't very relevant, as Kirat found out about Bobby three years before the podcast was released. Alexi's role comes through in the last couple of episodes, where he tries to understand Simran's motive, but he doesn't end up getting any more answers than Kirat already had.

The podcast was interesting enough for me to listen through, but it left me wanting more. It was excellent background noise for some puzzling, though, and therefore it was worth it. 2.5/5.

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Thoughts on public shaming and cancel culture

What is the cause behind cancel culture? Why do we as people enjoy shaming others? In this post I will be diving in to the topic of cancel culture through different forms of media, and sharing some of my own thoughts!

For my ALMS course, I wanted to choose a topic I could discuss and reflect on by watching and reading content, and then giving you my thoughts on what I watched or read, as well as my personal experiences. Cancel culture seemed like the perfect theme for this!

Cancel culture is a phenomenon I have witnessed over the 10+ years I have spent on the internet, and it is a topic I have also learned about in my journalism studies. I'm planning on watching documentaries, TV shows, Ted talks or podcasts regarding the topic, to get an idea for what exactly this phenomenon intails and how it can impact people.

27.9 15 Minutes of Shame

Today I watched a documentary called 15 Minutes of Shame, a documentary on cancel culture and public shaming. Monica Lewinsky, who is an executive producer on the documentary, and who herself was a victim of public shaming back in 1998, wants to dive into the topic of public shaming and why it happens.

The phenomenon of public shaming dates back very far, to days way before the internet. As human beings, we have a desire to shame and call out others, which was interesting to learn about. Public shaming used to be done on the streets, before it was moved into tabloids and later on, the internet.

The documentary follows four different people who were victims of public shaming online, as well as interviews with experts. The stories range from getting racially harassed at a university campus, bullied over anti-Trump comments and getting fired for an alleged white supremacy handsign.

The story that touched me the most was that of Matt Colvin, an Amazon reseller. Admist the coronavirus, Colvin agreed to be part of an article for The New York Times, depicting how he had purchased nearly 18 000 bottles of hand sanitizer to resell for a profit. What followed was an article, focusing on price gouging, and ultimately painting Colvin in a bad light.

I decided to read the article, titled He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them, written by Jack Nicas, to see what lead to Covin being threatened and unemployed. The article uses Colvin as an example of greed and unethical profiting during a pandemic. Quickly after resellers on Amazon raised their prices to make a profit, the sales of products like Colvin's hand sanitizers was heavily restricted, hence the bottles collecting dust in his garage.

I find the link between media and public shaming to be very interesting. In multiple of the stories highlighted in the documentary, the media picked up these stories, thereby sensationalizing them and making them even bigger than they needed to be. What follows is the wrath of an online mob, leading to negative attention for the company the canceled person works for, mental health issues and even death threats.

It especially makes me think about clickbait and using sensational stories to get more clicks, and how this can lead to people losing their livelihood or even their own lives. Being the reason for another person's suffering is not something I would personally be okay with.

I really enjoyed the documentary, and it made me think about my own role in these kinds of stories, as a potential journalist of the future. The documentary also highlights one of the dark sides of the internet, how easy it is to ruin someone's life.

5.10 Hated in the Nation

The topic of cancel culture and social media reminded me of a few Black Mirror episodes I have seen. Black Mirror is a British anthology series focusing on various topics surrounding dystopias and sci-fi. The show's Wikipedia page describes it as a speculative fiction, which I feel is very accurate.

Today I decided to rewatch an episode that sparked my interest for the topic of cancel culture: "Hated in the Nation". It is the sixth episode of the third Black Mirror season, and it came out in 2016. The episode is set in the near future, with advanced technology and most notably, a network of Autonomous Drone Insects (ADI), which are solar powered drones acting as a stand in for near-extinct bees.

The episode follows a team of police officers in the UK, investigating the death of a journalist, a celebrity and a normal woman who were all in the middle of so-called "online shitstorms". The team come to find that all victims were killed by the ADIs. Each victim was determined by the use and popularity of a #DeathTo-hashtag, with the most popular person under the hashtag being killed each day.

At the end of the episode, the person who hacked their way into the netword of ADIs and his plan are revealed - he wants people who take part in cyberbullying to pay the ultimate price. He calls it a game of consequences, where the hacked ADIs eventually end up killing all of the thousands of people who took part in using the #DeathTo-hashtag.

This episode of Black Mirror is very dark, as it shows how many people take part in cyberbullying. Not only do the people who post the hashtag unknowingly take part in the death of the person they target, they also end up paying the ultimate price as a consequence.

The episode highlights how easy it is to take part in bullying or wishing death upon someone they don't even know. It also shows how people react to being the target - the journalist puts on a brave face while the normal woman is practically having a panic attack. I find this episode to be eye-opening in many ways, and definitely worth a watch.

I'd also like to point out the use of accents in this particular episode. The lead actress Kelly Macdonald is Scottish, and it took me a second to get familiar with the Scottish accent. I decided to listen to the episode without subtitles to challenge myself to understand her, and it didn't take me very long to clearly comprehend what she was saying.

11.10 The Most Hated Man on the Internet

I decided to watch another documentary relating to public shaming and the internet, and stumbled upon a docuseries called The Most Hated Man on the Internet. The series is about a website used for revenge porn, and follows several victims who had their nude photos posted on the site.

The series mainly follows a woman called Charlotte, whose daughter had her nude photos posted on the site. The daughter had stored the images in her private email, which means that the photos posted on the site were a result of someone hacking her acount.

In the series, multiple other victims explain their stories. One victim got his photos posted while someone was using his phone, another victim tells her story of trying to use the site to promote herself (she was doing porn on other sites) but ended up losing her children for the posts. One woman ended up attempting suicide over the leaked photos.

The man who owns the site, Hunter Moore, seems to get a lot of enjoyment out of publicly humiliating people. His cult-like following bullies the victims who end up on the site and even threaten victims and people like Charlotte, who try to go against the leader.

It was interesting to watch a documentary about getting bullied and attacked on the internet for other reasons than opinions or bad choices in life, getting a glimpse of how having your private photos leaked can ruin your life too. This gave me a wider understanding of just how evil the internet can be - anything you post (or just keep for yourself) can have huge consequences.

The first part of the series also touches on legal issues, like copyright and privacy, which was interesting to learn about. These things will most likely be discussed more in the other parts, which I might watch at some point.

I think the documentary was very eye-opening. I can only imagine what I would do if I was in any of the victims' shoes. The fact that a website like this existed, where anyone could post revenge porn for the leader's followers to bully and harass, is very scary. I find the worst part to be the leader himself, who didn't seem to care about the victims' feelings at all.

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Creative Writing - an outlet for creativity

Join me on my voyage of writing a short story for the Creative Writing support group, where I let my imagination run free while writing and editing my story based on feedback I get from others!

I have always enjoyed creative writing. Letting my imagination go free is something I started doing when I was young, and soon thereafter I started writing my wild ideas and characters into short stories. In recent years, the only creative writing I have done has been in a classroom setting, often with set prompts or methods. I do however much prefer writing freely - letting my imagination take over however it pleases.

In this post I will be documenting and reflecting on my progress in the Creative Writing support group. Throughout my ALMS course I will be writing mainly short stories, but I might dive into the world of poetry if I get hit with immense inspiration.

21.9

Today I had my first meeting for the Creative Writing support group. The teacher had asked us to think about our own experience with creative writing beforehand, and it was interesting to hear how everyone's backgrounds were fairly different. Personally, I haven't been writing much in recent years, but I'm excited to let my creative juices flow again.

During the meeting we got to test out some websites that might help us during our writing, such as thesauri and generators of different kinds. We also decided to give ourselves a common prompt for our first text: a beginning.

I'm very excited to start writing, and some of the plot and character generators have already given me ideas on what to write. I will be starting with a short story, but I'm excited to see if any of the other group members will be writing something else.

22.9

I started working on my story today. I had already brainstormed some ideas during and after the first meeting, and today I managed to form a primary plot for the story. I even used one of the websites from the first meeting to shape my characters. I have never focused on creating backgrounds for characters I have written about in the past, but it's something I want to focus on for this story.

So far my main character is a teenage girl who is loosely based on myself. I find it easier to write stories from a familiar view, which is why I decided to make the main character much like myself. The other three characters in the story are mostly just ideas as this point, but I'm excited to see what they end up being. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears peeled while watching or reading other stories, in case I find inspiration for my own story.

25.9

I kept working on my characters and their personalities, as well as finalizing the plot! I now have everything I need to start writing the actual story.

Creating characters and working out their backstory and personality has helped me visualize how they interact with each other and how they wil react to certain things in the story.

26.9

Today I finally started writing the actual story! Using my plot notes, I split the story into five parts and was able to write 4/5 today! The story was very easy to write, thanks to the preparations I had done. Knowing the general plot and my characters' personalities helped me write a more choesive story.

Writing the story has so far been easy and quite fast. I know I am a creative person and can easily write texts (which is why I study journalism) and writing fiction has gone very smoothly! Writing in English has not been very challenging, apart from having to google silly things to figure out the correct words to use. This is, however, something I do a lot - I would call myself an expert at googling or translating words to find the one I had in mind!

My next step is to finish writing the fifth part of the story, and end it with a bang! Well, in my case, a key unlocking a door... But I am excited to keep writing another day, and to go through the text and make improvements!

5.10

Today I had my second meeting with the support group. Before submitting my short story, I made some edits to it, but ended up sending in the uncompleted story. This was the case for all of us in the group, so it was okay!

During the meeting I received feedback from my peers, the teacher and a teacher visiting from Prague. It was nice to get feedback from different people, some focused on the story and plot, some on my word choices and the structure of the story.

The feedback I received was mostly positive! I have a story with a clear structure and a working plot, although some parts felt unclear to the others. One thing I need to establish in the story is the role of cell phones - do they exist in the story? If they do, why aren't the characters just using their phones? In my mind the story is set in a time when cell phones weren't used, but I also got some ideas of lost service etc. that I could include in the story. Either way I need to emphasize the existence of cell phones, or the lack thereof!

I got another comment on the tense used in the story. Right now, the tense shifts back and forth unintentionally, and it's definitely something I need to work on. Mixing up tenses is something I also struggle with in Swedish, so it was good that someone pointed it out in this context too.

I also gave feedback to my peers, which didn't feel too difficult. I'm used to giving feedback and criticizing texts, and doing it in English wasn't that difficult. Pointing out certain things in the others' texts made me realize things I could change in my own story, such as writing more about the surroundings.

The meeting went well and gave me a lot to think about. I'm looking forward to editing my existing text with the help of the feedback, and I'm also excited to keep writing the end of the story!

6.10

I worked on some grammar exercises today, which inspired me to also work on my short story. During the last group meeting I received the feedback that my story had shifting tenses without a clear explanation as to why. This feedback was very useful, as I had not even noticed it when I was writing the story!

So, I decided to stick to the past tense in the story. When reading through the text looking for one specific grammatical error, they stuck out a lot! It was easy to change the existing text to the past tense, making sure I remembered to change all verbs in each sentence.

As I was editing the story, I also decided to focus on punctuation and on some other feedback I had received during the meeting. I still have a lot of work to do with the story, but it's already looking a lot better!

12.10

For the last two days I have been working on editing my existing story. I feel much better about some scenes after editing them and going over them multiple times over a couple of days.

I am the kind of writer who can write pretty good text from the get-go, which is a skill I'm proud of. However, sometimes I can get stuck on certain words or even paragraphs, not knowing how to refine my text. I opted to use a thesaurus to help me with word choices and creating some variation in the story, and I think it really helped!

After editing my existing text, I also wrote down notes for the general plot of the next part of the story. I am looking forward to writing the next part!

17.10

Today I woke up with a realization - I have a deadline tonight and haven't written anything new for my short story.

I have been hoping my writer's block would go away, but the last few days it has been difficult for me to write. But, knowing I have a deadline tonight, I had to power through it!

Which is exactly what I did. Using my notes from my last session I wrote the next part of the story! Sometimes creativity hits you only when you start writing, and I'm glad it did today. I like how the story has gone so far, and I'm excited to hear others' thoughts on it.

The prompt for this deadline was curveball, and it happened to align with what I had already planned for the story so far. I'm a little nervous for my meeting on Thursday, and for the next prompt, because I have not thought about how my story will continue from this point on. But I'm excited to get some feedback and maybe some ideas from my peers!

19.10

It was time for another Creative Writing meeting today. There were only three of us today, so I didn't get a ton of feedback, but some at least!

I mainly received positive feedback for my writing. My peers enjoy my characters, their personalities and they character development through the story. It was nice to see that the characters' personalities are noticable without explicitly explaining all of their backstories.

Some of my peers did wish I would include more of the characters' backstory in the short story, which I am not sure I want to do. I like that the reader doesn't know much about the characters, but I could potentially add some information about how certain characters met, how long they've known each other for etc.

I'm looking forward to editing my story based on the feedback and continuing the story. I still don't have ideas for how the story will continue from where it last left off, but I'm hoping our next prompt new encounter will help me!

30.11

It's been a while. I have had a stressful couple of weeks and didn't find the time or energy to continue working until today.

I didn't do too much today, mainly some light editing of previous parts of my story, but I did manage to get some new writing done, too. I kept working on the story, and managed to get a surprising amount done.

For now, I don't really have any ideas for how to continue. I'm going to allow myself to take some time off writing the story, hoping it will inspire me to write more when I think of something to write about.

7.11

Today I was forced to sit down and work on the story again. I was hoping inspiration would hit, but unfortunately it never did. I did manage to write a little more on the story, but for the most part I feel like I have hit a wall.

I am considering leaving the story I have so far and starting on something new. A fresh start might be what I need, even just opening a new document and thinking of new characters and a totally different plot could prompt me to find some new inspiration. One of my peers did just that, for this week's meeting she wrote a story totally separate from the one she's worked on before, and I feel like I might have to do the same.

9.11

We had another meeting today. Since I didn't have a ton of time to work on my piece for this meeting, I also didn't receive a ton of feedback. The feedback I got was however really helpful, and I think my next step is taking a step back and reading through my existing story and editing it. Maybe reading through what I already have, polishing it a bit, will help me think of what happens next.

Or maybe it won't. During the meeting, I discussed with the others, and some of us do believe that working on something else for a bit could be benefitial. I think I will sleep on it for a few nights, and whenever I sit down to write again I'll decide on whether to keep working on my existing piece or starting on something new.

16.11

I was hit with inspiration today, and decided to keep working on my piece. We have decided to have one final meeting next week, so I want to finish my story before then!

I started by reading though the existing story and making some changes, many based on the feedback from last week's meeting. I think the changes that I made were necessary, and it made me more excited to keep writing what happens next.

So far I have written everything but the last twist in the story. The prompt for next time is closed doors - a situation where an opportunity ended up being taken away for a bad reason, which at first felt very tricky, but I feel like I came up with a way to add this to the ending of the story. It even helped me come up with a logical way for the story ending, which was definitely needed!

I'm excited to keep working on the last of my story in the upcoming days, but also to see what my peers do for the final meeting. We are all in very different positions when it comes to our stories, so most of them won't necessarily be ending like mine, but I'm still excited to meet one final time.

20.11

I finally finished my story!

After working on this creative piece for two months, I finally finished the story today. I wasn't sure I would get to this point, but I'm proud of myself for not giving up on the story even when I was low on inspiration and motivation.

The ending for my story feels thought-out and logical, even though I didn't have a ton of time to think about a way to end it. I'm happy with how it's turned out, and I hope my peers agree!

I was planning on writing an article for the end of the story (inspired by a book I read for Book Club), but realized I don't have time for this. If I did have time to write an article, the ending would have gone a little differently, but I was able to make it work without it.

That is one thing I wish I had played around with a little bit more - creative solutions like adding articles or text messages into the text. That is something I'll keep in mind for next time I work on a creative piece like this.

I might still ask my peers what they would have thought about the alternative article-ending, and what they think about creative solutions like that. I'm also excited to see everyone for a final meeting.

23.11

We held our (potentially) last meeting today! It was fun to meet for a final time and share both some feedback on each other's texts and our writing experiences throughout the course.

I received some useful feedback, mostly about how to tie some ends together in the story. I was also pleased to hear that my peers liked the idea of me writing a news article at the end of the story, to further explain what ended up happening to the characters.

We finished off the session by discussing writing in general and how this support group helped us. Many of us felt that writing something creative was a nice break from reality and our other studies, especially one of us who studies in a field where they don't do much writing.

It's been fun meeting with the group every second week, and the feedback I have received has helped me a lot. A big thank you to my fellow writers!

[isalms]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - the (fictional) woman who took Hollywood by storm

What is it like to listen to a famous movie star's life and write her biography? In the book , an unexperienced journalist - and I as the reader - learn just that. In this post I talk about my experience with reading and discussing this novel for Book Club!

Welcome to my first book review! In this post I will discuss the first book I read during my ALMS course - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I am reading this book as part of one of my support groups, the Book Club! Join me as I write down scattered notes from my reading sessions, and thoughts that I gathered during my Book Club meetings.

20.9 The introductory Book Club meeting!

Today I had my first meeting with the book club. For this meeting we had all prepared by thinking about our reading habits and preferences, which we then discussed together with the whole group. I have always enjoyed reading, and I used to read a looooooot. Nowadays, when I'm busy with school and work, I find myself reading way too little. Like many others in the group, I hope that taking part in the Book Club will motivate me to read during the course, but after it ends too!

I ended up in the Romance group, because Fantasy books and Classics aren't really my thing. I was unsure about the Romance genre at first, because to me, Romance can be difficult to discuss with others. However, after discussing ideas with each other, we decided to read a book called The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. According to our short research, this book not only focuses on romance and love, but on some social issues as well. It was also on some of our group members' wish lists, so it was an easy choice at the end.

I'm excited to start reading the book (once I get hold of a copy) and I'm especially looking forward to our first Club meeting! Hopefully the book is as good as people say, it seems to be on many young people's favorites list.

2.10 A check-in after 43 pages

I finally started reading the book today! I was able to read about 40 pages, enough to get an introduction of the characters and the structure of the novel.

The novel follows Monique Grant, a mostly unknown journalist battling with her split from her husband of 11 months. Monique works for a paper, and gets unsuspectedly contacted by the famous actor, Evelyn Hugo. Hugo is a movie star known for her many scandals and marriages – seven to be exact – and she wants to conduct an interview with Monique. This is the first time in decades that Hugo agrees to do an interview, which makes Monique and the paper she works for very excited.

Monique meets up with Hugo at her lavish apartment, where she reveals that Monique is not writing a cover for the paper, but instead writing Hugo's biography – which is to be published after her death. After some thinking, Monique agrees to listen to and tell the story of Evelyn Hugo.

After the first 43 pages I'm already hooked. The way this novel is written keeps me wanting to continue, and I found myself breezing through the pages very quickly. So far the story has been about Monique and Evelyn meeting each other, and I'm excited to learn about the life on this huge movie star! I will definitely keep reading soon.

3.10 Already 132 pages in

I could not leave the book alone for too long, so today I sat down to keep reading! I was able to get through about 90 pages before I had to allow myself to do other things.

So far, the perspective has been that of Monique's, but now the story is being told from Evelyn's perspective. The book is divided into section based on the man Evelyn Hugo is married to at the time, which starts with her first husband Ernie Diaz. This section explored Evelyn's back story and how she found herself becoming an actress in Hollywood. There, she meets her second husband Don Adler.

The story so far shifts between Monique's perspective, her thoughts and daily life after her meetings with Evelyn, and Evelyn's perspective, where she tells the stories of her life and her journey with each husband. I like the balance between the two perspectives, especially since Evelyn's story gets very deep and heavy at times.

There is already so much to talk about with this book, and I'm excited to both keep reading and prepare for my next Book Club meeting. I have really enjoyed reading, doing it in English has not proven to be difficult. I also think reading a novel will help me improve my own writing, especially the short story I am working on for my Creative Writing support group!

9.10 Already through 204 pages

My plan to read the book in small chunks over multiple days hasn't really worked out. I find myself waiting for the right moment to sit down, and once I do find that time, I spend over an hour reading.

So far, I have learned a lot about Evelyn Hugo and her life as a Hollywood star. I have learned about a few more of Evelyn's marriages, but most importantly that Evelyn isn't actually in love with any of them. Her big love is in fact a woman - her old co-star Celia St. James. Or should I say was, since Evelyn ruined her relationship with Celia when she was trying to protect them both.

13.10 The first Book Club meeting!

Today we held our first Book Club meeting! During our meeting we discussed the book so far, focusing on the plot, the characters, some larger themes and our reading experiences so far!

All of us had been able to read at least 120 pages before the meeting, and agreed that the book was easy to read and very hard to stop reading. I'm glad my fellow group members enjoyed the book as much as I did, as it made it easier to discuss.

During our meeting, we focused a lot of time into talking about some bigger themes portrayed in the book, such as homosexuality in 50s and 60s Hollywood, as well as other norms that have changed since then. It was particularly interesting to discuss these things with others, because I got new insight and perspective from them, and I started seeing certain topics or characters in a different light.

This meeting was also good practice for speaking English. Our group only consists of four people, but we all have different skill-levels in different areas of the language, which lead to us also helping each other. If someone was struggling to find the right word to use in English, we were able to help them and translate from Finnish or Swedish!

I'm looking forward to our next meeting, which we planned for the 23rd. We are all eager to keep reading, so we couldn't let the time before the next meeting drag on for too long! I am especially excited to learn how Monique's and Evelyn's lives intersect, as someone in the Book Club mentioned that this very thing was teased in the blurb.

19.10 My thoughts with 100 pages to go

After a short break, I am back to reading! Over the last couple of days I have made a lot of progress, reading half of the remaining book.

So far the story hasn't taken any major, unexpected turns. Evelyn is continuing her story, talking about her latest marriage to Harry Cameron. Harry has been Evelyn's best friend throughout the whole book, and he continued to be that during this marriage as well. That is because Harry is gay, Evelyn is bisexual, and they got married to protect themselves in a time when homosexuality wasn't accepted. The two even have a daughter together, and live together as a family.

Evelyn also gets back together with Celia, her great love, only to lose her once again over a movie-performance with her ex-husband Don. Although tragic at times, the story of Evelyn and Celia is very beautiful, highlighting what love should feel like even when it has to remain a secret.

With only 100 pages remaining, I am eagerly waiting for something big to happen in the story. Something is coming, it has been teased many times, and I'm very excited to learn just what will happen next.

20.10 I finished it

Yes, that's right, I finished the last of the book in less than three hours. I simply couldn't stop reading the last pages.

The first half of the last 100 pages felt somewhat uneventful. Evelyn gets married to a man who doesn't love her as much as he loves the idea of her, which makes her rekindle her love with Celia after a decade (finally!). The two of them move away from Hollywood, settle down in a town where no one knows them and Evelyn marries her last husband - Celia's brother Robert - to inherit Celia's life after she passes away.

In the last 100 pages Evelyn goes through a lot of loss - Celia, Harry and her daugher, Connor. Out of these, the most heartbreaking one to me was the death of Harry, because not only did Evelyn lose her soul mate and best friend in that car accident, Monique lost her father. This was the big twist in the story - Harry had been seeing and in love with Monique's late father James. This was revealed at the end of the book, and I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear or two.

The book was wonderful to read. It stayed interesting throughout and I never got bored, even at times when not much of importance was happening. The twist at the end was unexpected but still made sense, which made the whole story even better! I'm so excited to talk about it during my next Book Club meeting.

23.10 The second Book Club meeting!

We met for our second meeting today! All of u shad finished the book and we discussed everything about it - how much we liked it, the characters, the plot, the ending etc.

Before the meeting I was very much in love with the book. It was the first novel I have read for a while, and I thought everyone else would agree. However, after discussing with the others, I realized the book wasn't actually as amazing as it had appeared.

I still like the book, as did everyone else, but we came to the conclusion that it could've been better. There were some parts in the book that weren't explained much (for example multiple years just glossed over), while the book simultaneously didn't leave anything up to the reader's imagination. There wasn't really any mystery in the book, everything was explained, and I think one of my peers said something that really made me realize this.

"I finished the book a few days ago and haven't thought about it since.

It's true, I also hadn't thought about the book since I finished reading it. I remember reading my favorite book (it's called All the Bright Places, btw) and thinking about it for days if not weeks after finishing it. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was so easy to read and didn't leave me with anything to think about after I read all of it, which is a little disappointing.

We also questioned some parts of the plot, which we didn't feel were necessary in the novel. I haven't even mentioned Monique's divorce from her partner David in this post, that's how unnecessary that storyline felt!

There were some other parts we questioned too, but that being said, we still enjoyed the novel. We would all give it a 4/5 star rating.

During our meeting we decided to keep our club going and to read another novel. Stick around for my next Book Club post, where I will be discussing my experience with my next book!

[isalms]

Opening session and first thoughts

Today I had my first ALMS session!

My ALMS journey started today! During the opening session my counselor provided me and the whole group with information about the course, its stucture and how to proceed from here. I now have a much better understanding of what the course looks like and how much I get to shape my own ALMS journey. I already have a ton of ideas for both activities and posts!

My favorite thing from the opening session was the short free writing exercise we did. I have not written text using pen and paper since I made Christmas cards for my family, so picking up a pen and writing about climate change and meeting one of my best friends online was more challenging than I thought. However, it wasn't my brain that was sore from thinking about speling words and using correct grammar, it was my fingers.

I'm excited to see where my journey during this course takes me, and I'm more than happy to bring you along! In this blog I will write updates on what I have been doing for the course, in the form of both shorter and longer posts. Some posts might focus on specific events, others will focus more on topics I learn about and reflect on during the course.

That's it for my first thoughts on the course, I will see you again soon with even more thoughts on books I'm reading, topics I've read about or perhaps how I can better communicate with my boyfriend during game night... that's up for me to decide. See you soon!

[isalms]

ALMS blog

Welcome to my ALMS fall 23 blog! This page is dedicated to my ALMS blog, where I will post updates throughout my ALMS course. Follow me on a journey through reading books, watching documentaries, listening to (true crime) podcasts and playing video games!

This blog is my creative outlet during this course. It is where I will update you on my progress, reflect on my learning and give you tips for what you can do during your own ALMS course. I hope you enjoy what I post here, and hopefully I can inspire you too!