#just finished the wide sargasso sea

[roseventricles]

Refulgent, starry, free.

tang of balsam conjugal with hints of frangipani, misted with the dews of congealed sunshine and whiffs of a lime tree in bloom, draped with the sweet aerial redolence of tangerines and clementines, all dipped in the ripple of milky sweetness and nectar. oh, how i long to bask in the sunlight, revel in fresh shimmering waters, dimpled with rain. how i yearn for the mantle of petrichor, comforting and protecting. the mirth of wildness, marigolds in our tresses, our altars decked with the spirit of divine effulgence and corporeal petals, our hands stained with fragrant patterns, symbolic of the myriad of forms donned by cosmic abyss. barefoot on drenched, sweet grass, we beckon unbridled creation, love, tenderness, freedom, enlightenment, ecstasy and emancipation from the realm of flesh. the fleshy drapes shrink to sinews which wither to corpuscle, a stroke of pulchritude pervading destruction.

[rhaenyra-the-gracious]

tagged by @euphcme, thank you, cleo! <3

last song: still listening to suki favorite color: black, grey, purple, white currently watching: nothing really currently reading: I wanna finish at least four novels during the vacation, I haven't finished books in ages, due mostly to my sight problems (I just got new glasses). Love's Wild Desire by Jennifer Blake, The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, Jane Eyre for the third time, Wide Sargasso Sea for the second time, Poor Things by Aladair Gray last movie: still Heretic, but I'm about to watch Gladiator II sweet/spicy/savory: sweet sadly (I'm seriously overweight) tattoos/piercings: none relationship status: single current obsession: suki waterhouse tea or coffee: coffee! what you're wearing: a red sleeveless shirt and a black, lettered pj bottom dream job: I wanted to be a writer since I was 13, but Idk if I want it anymore last thing you googled: I was just curious why I shouldn't pour carbonated water into my new drinking bottle, it remained an unsolved mystery. lol

tagging:

@natromanovs, @beermanoftana, @lavellun, @waxladrian, @halfstayed,

@harrowscore, @carrionsflower. @atlantidea, @vorgoths, @aryasnow

[saint-starflicker]

About the options: These are all Dark Academia but with girls, or related to that. (My definition of Dark Academia because really anything gets tagged that: as a genre fiction piece it must be dark and it must be academic. Dark, meaning involving death or themes of oppression or evil in the human heart; Academic meaning there is a focus of study, recurring reference to a subject of study, or more simply that most of the story takes place at a campus or schoolhouse of some sort.)

Wide Sargasso Sea is—apparently—a 1960's feminist and postcolonial retelling of boarding-school-girl-turned-governess Jane Eyre, but this time told from the point of view of Bertha Antoinette. (I have just finished reading Jane Eyre and wondered about what other works with which this book is already in a sort of literary "conversation". I have not read this book.)

Down a Dark Hall is a 1974 young adult gothic story about—judging from the movie—five girls sent to an exclusive boarding school where supernatural experiments in ghost possession are done on them. (I recently watched the movie and have not yet read the book.)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 historical fiction story that takes place in the year 1900 in southeast Australia, also has mystery and—it seems, depending on how many chapters in the edition—science fiction elements. (I recently watched the 1975 movie and the 2018 miniseries, and have not yet read the book.)

Cracks by Sheila Kohler is a 1999 novel that takes place in a girls' boarding school in 1960s South Africa. (I only watched the movie, which set the story in Britain in the 1930s instead and eliminated the 1990's flashfoward. I have not yet read the book.)

I have already both read The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein and watched the 2011 movie adaptation, and I recommend both if you like Dark Academia that's about girls—even though, be warned, The Moth Diaries contains a lot more blood and death and intensely feelbad themes than the average Dark Academia book or movie.

[20genderchild]

was tagged by @galwithalibrarycard thank you!

last three movies you’ve watched: so the Important Cinema Club podcast hosts 24 hour movie marathons on Twitch and the latest one was specifically movie musicals, the only one I saw in full was Cats on Park Avenue/Kôendôri no nekotachi which is a 1989 Japanese movie about a neighborhood’s street cats and a group of girls trying to put on a musical about the cats and it is Perfect. besides that I didn’t watch any of the movies in full but the ones I saw the most of were The Haunted Castle/Das Spukschloss im Spessart which is a 1960 German film about a young woman who lives in a castle with ghosts and apparently the beginning is batshit insane but I showed up like 10% in. And the one I saw maybe an hour of was Winter Evening in Gagra/Zimniy vecher v Gagrakh which is a 1985 Russian movie about a guy who wants to be a tap dancer. If we’re not counting the ones I didn’t see in their entirety then it’s The Color of Money and Holes lol

four movies on your watchlist: I need to FINALLY watch RoboCop, and also need to watch The Wrestler if only to see fuckin Necro Butcher and also Claudio with hair in a movie. and then uhhhhh I’ve heard good things about I Saw the TV Glow. and speaking of important cinema club I wanna watch one of the Farley-Roxburgh movies, probably Magic Spot

last three songs/artists you listened to: Nineteen by Charly Bliss, Little Chaos by Orla Gartland, and I Just Think I’m Smart by Wild Party

four songs/artists on your to-listen list: I want to listen to Sydney Sprauge just from hearing her lyric “stone cold stunner, homestar runner”, I keep meaning to listen to Redveil, I mean I listen to Everything Everything but I need to listen to their newest album, uhhhhhhhhh I can’t think of anyone else atm

last three books you read: I have fallen completely out of the habit of reading for over like seven years i think it’s all stuff for the podcast. Checking storygraph yep it’s Holes, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Fairest

four books on your tbr: okay so I’m reading two books I need to finish so I think they count as tbr, I need to finish Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow. Zoë recommended Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko to be and that looks cool, and I also have an ebook of A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft that I’ve never gotten around to

I’ll tag @reyantilles @all-chickens-are-trans @sirenofthetimes @greatestvoyageinhistoryofplastic and anyone else who wants to do it!

[briannysey]

13 books tag game, tagged by @gunkread

Last book I read Last book I read to completion was either Homebody/Kabul (if you count reading plays as finished books), or Wide Sargasso Sea. Both great post-colonial texts. Also both for class lmao.

A book I recommend The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford. Ford was an inspiration to a lot of current "inspiration authors" like Gaiman and Robert Jordan. The Dragon Waiting is a deeply fascinating historical fantasy novel where four compatriots try to stop the imperial ambitions of the Byzantine Empire as it spreads west across Europe. I don't know what the fuck got into this guy, but he wrote with a feverish imagination that I don't think I've seen anyone come close to replicating.

A book I couldn't put down The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Goddamn can that lady write! This book was so good and so fascinating to me b/c it's protagonist is essentially a deeply kind character thrown into rulership, and the peace and prosperity he brings to his people is built on that kindness. Such a heart warming book.

A book I've read twice (or more) Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin. I think I've talked about it before here on Tumblr, but Leguin blew my eyes wide open in terms of understanding what fantasy literature could do and be. In a genre replete with end of the world struggles and titanic battles between good and evil, Leguin asked "what does it mean to face the shadow within yourself?" Whenever I am especially depressed, or lost, I go back to Wizard of Earthsea and rekindle a little bit of joy and magic in my life. Leguin is the best to ever do it, and we're all just writing and reading in her shadow.

A book on my TBR Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum both by Umberto Eco. I really wanna start reading the man, he's important. Also I started Name of the Rose a few years ago and it was incredible.

A book I've put down A Memory Called Empire. I think I'll come back to it, but when I was reading it I could not commit time to it. And the naming conventions were exceptionally difficult for me to follow.

A book on my wish list 3 Parts Dead from Max Gladstone. I used to own a copy but I had to leave it behind in my last madcap cross-country move.

A favorite book from childhood The Belgariad. It's very derivative, and its attitudes towards parenting turn out to be... fitting considering who the authors turned out to be. Still, what a classic entry to fantasy.

A book you would give a friend Traitor Baru Cormorant (I have bought like 3 copies for friends at this point). Please read this book.

The most books you own by a single author It used to be 15 for Wheel of Time, then after the first time I lost all my books and belongings it was probably 5 for GRRM. Currently it's like 4 by James Baldwin.

A nonfiction book you own The Collected Essays from James Baldwin.

What are you currently reading Gideon the Ninth! Finally!!

What are you planning on reading next? After Gideon I really want to keep reading the Locked Tomb stuff, but we'll see. I'm not committed.

[storybook-souls]

1, 17, 46 (surely i do not have to fill in the blank here)

hi kes :D

2. Name the best book you've read so far this year.

Watership Down. Bold words from a girl who hasn't finished it but so far it's really beating everything else by miles.

17. Favorite finished book series.

I'll give this one to the original Percy Jackson series tbh! I re-read all five recently enough to stand by it. Stays solid and consistent for all five books. The characters develop and the stakes get raised in a way that feels natural but not static. It has a formula that lets each one stand as a complete volume with a true beginning, middle, and end but also puts twists on the formula as the books go on. The later books pay off on things established in earlier books. it's just really solid and! i love it

46. I like _____, recommend me a book to read, please

I already TELL you about everything i read that i think you'd like.....will you accept one of those recommendations from me where i think it's like 50/50 whether you like it or hate it but it'll be interesting either way? in which case have you ever read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys? I read it for a college lit class and it's one of those tragic pretentious (honorific) literary books where there was a lot of debate in the post-book discussion about what actually happened since it's told by two different biased narrators and gets really weird at the end, which you might find fun. it's also a book with a lot to say about power structures and the potential horrors of heterosexual marriage and about colonialism. and technically fits the bill of "miserable couple who hate each other and end up destroying each other." It's probably better if you've read Jane Eyre which is what it's building from/subverting/criticizing, but I think it would still be interesting to read even with only a basic knowledge of the relevant parts of Jane Eyre. i do remember that the way it dealt with race made me uncomfortable, i think it was in a "this is thought provoking to engage with and criticize in an academic setting" way but it might make it less appealing to read just for fun. and i haven't read it in like 6 years so i mostly remember my impressions, less what actually happens, BUT! it's under 200 pages which is another thing you like.

i'm also re-recommending We Believe the Children by Richard Beck bc it might be good for your audiobook era. but i know i already recc'd it to you

send me book asks!

[theuniversitychallengereview]

Amol New World

When I wrote the first ever edition of this blog in 2016, I described Jeremy Paxman as 'stony eyed, hair thick and flowing like a bear post-hibernation.' Having completed his twenty ninth series earlier this year he has now departed for a longer rest, well earned after nearly three decades of sardonic quips and withering put-downs. From all of the press pics, his replacement Amol Rajan is not boasting a bouffant on Paxo's 2016 level, and I can't choose which animal to compare him with, but I'm sure we'll get there.

I, like all viewers of University Challenge, am intrigued to see how Rajan hosts the show. For a large number of people Paxman is the only person we've known as quizmaster, and his style has become synonymous with the show itself. In his later years, he mellowed out a little bit, taking the edge off his caustic nature for the most part, but his furrowed brow, knitted tightly in befuddlement at the silliness of a contestant's throwaway guess remains iconic. Amol Rajan certainly has a big seat to fill.

I think its pretty cool, for what its worth, and I reckon they had to mix things up a bit or it might have felt a bit strange with someone else in the hotseat.

There is an excitement around this series, a nervousness about the newness of it (amplified somewhat by the faked death of the University Challenge YouTube uploader, which you can read about here if you haven't heard of it. Let's just say here that hopefully someone else steps up to upload this new series).

Manchester have won the show four times, and Trinity three, making them two of the most historically significant UC teams, but only one of them can win tonight... Without further ado, your first starter of the Amol Rajan era.

The show opens with a bizarre aspect ratio which I feared they were going to stick with the whole time, but the camera zooms in and we are treated to Rajan's dulcet tones for the first time. He introduces the teams and then we're off to the races.

Immaterialism is a concept associated with which philosopher...

Manchester hit back thanks to captain Senehedheera, but he rushes on the first bonus, losing out on the five points. No one knows its Honolulu on the next starter, but a second from Senehedheera gives Manchester the lead. Jaksina gets the first picture starter on Dr Zhivago by Pasternak, before a full bonus set on samizdat novels ties the game, and another from Banerjee takes back the advantage.

De los Reyes-White takes a starter on Wandavision and Senehedheera is disgusted by his own failure to recall the names of philosophers on the bonuses.

Henderson gets the music starter in about two seconds, prompting a big 'wow!' from Rajan. Maybe this can be his thing - pure shock at the speed of knowledge on display. Good bonuswork puts Trinity on double the score of Manchester at the halfway stage.

Banerjee wins a bonus set on herbs for Trinity. Bucking the stereotype of the cooking-ignorant student, they manage two of the three. Jaksina then takes his second picture starter with Vermeer, and Trinity are in command with five minutes to go.

Needing a starter, Grady buzzes in and starts giving Wide Sargasso Sea, but Rajan accepts his answer before he even finishes saying wide. Fair enough, but certainly something Paxman would never have done. They reduce the gap, but Kang shuts down the comeback. Whenever Manchester look like they're going to get back in it, one of the Trinity quartet block them. Fifty points separate the sides, so all Manchester can play for is the high-scoring loser play-off.

Or is it?

A starter from Kullmann is followed by a quickfire hat-trick on the bonuses. Another starter. Dawdling on the bonuses. Too much conferring. They only manage one, but its a crucial one. They're ten points back. A supremely clutch starter from De los Reyes-White (yak) ties the game with seconds left. Some of which Rajan wastes by telling us there are seconds left.

What kind of electricity...?

'Static?' guesses Senehedheera, and then the gong. Is he right? No he is not.

Tiebreak. 👔

In the first episode of the new era.

Which activist art group...

BuZz!

Senehedheera - Guerilla Girls?

Correct.

Trinity 175 - 185 Manchester

Phew! What a game to start the series. I know there is a bit of choice for the schedulers over which match gets broadcast first, but they must have been rubbing their hands with glee when this one fell into their laps.

Astonishing comeback from Manchester, and huge commiserations to Trinity, though they will surely return for the play-offs unless Rajan's increased speed of delivery results in loads of high-scoring games.

As for Rajan himself, new things always take a bit of getting used to, and as I said in the introduction, Paxman had become so synonymous with UC that its odd to see someone else there (it sort of feels like we're watching a alternate universe version of the show), but I think he did a good job and I'm sure we'll get over it soon enough.

Although it might take longer than that for people to get over the lack of question cards...

Join us next week for Episode 2 of the Rajan Era, as Aberdeen take on Birmingham, and subscribe here so that you never miss a review!

[over-fen-and-field]

End of year reading round-up! Woo-hoo!

My reading goal for 2023 was to read a book a week – while using very broad definitions of “book” (includes things like plays, novellas, and graphic novels), “read” (audiobooks and radio recordings count, not just written texts), and “week” (sometimes I read multiple short things in a week, sometimes it took me two or three weeks to get through a longer book).  I’m also defining “finished” as when I’m done with the book, but not necessarily when I’ve read every word on every page – I picked and chose chapters a bit from the essay collections, for example, and bounced off a few books halfway through if they just weren't for me or weren't for me at that time. Anything with an asterisk is a reread.  I have these roughly in chronological order of when I finished them, but I tended to be in the middle of several books at once and didn’t keep a good spreadsheet to keep track, so it’s a bit cobbled together from my memory and library records.  Also, please note that just because I read a book, doesn’t mean I agree with or endorse all or even most of the ideas in it.

The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang

Flight Behavior* by Barbara Kingsolver

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making* by Catherine M Valente

Deerskin* by Robin McKinley

Holy Silence by J Brent Bill

You Don’t Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right by Brad Hirschfield

A Letter in the Scroll by Jonathan Sacks

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler

One Nation, Indivisible by Celene Ibrahim and Jennifer Howe Peace

Chalice* by Robin McKinley

Braiding Sweetgrass* by Robin Kimmerer

Dracula* by Bram Stoker

Hamlet* by Shakespeare

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Here All Along by Sarah Hurwitz

This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew

The Scientist’s Guide to Writing by Stephen B Heard

Everything is God by Jay Michaelson

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible* by Barbara Kingsolver

The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile

Unsheltered* by Barbara Kingsolver

Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner

No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler

Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler

Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Bronte

Praying with Jane Eyre by Vanessa Zoltan

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Proverbs of Ashes by Rita Nakashima Brooks and Rebecca Ann Parker

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Staying with the Trouble* by Donna Haraway

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Incarnations by Susan Baker

Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rebecca Ann Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock

The Anthropocene Reviewed* by John Green

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

My Promised Land by Ari Shavit

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel by Ian Black

Dragonflight* by Anne McCaffrey

The Masterharper of Pern* by Anne McCaffrey

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin

Dragonsdawn* by Anne McCaffrey

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about the list!  There are definitely some themes that pop up again and again, but there’s a nice mix of genres, fiction/nonfiction, length, tone, first-time reads and rereads, etc.  I haven’t set a formal goal for this coming year yet, but I’m hoping to get some off-the-beaten-path recommendations from friends for things that I wouldn’t otherwise have heard about – so, if you have any favorites, I’d love to hear about them!

[platoapproved]

Ooh, ooh, 17, 21, 47 for the bookworm meme

17. Favorite finished book series.

How could I possibly choose just one? I'll pick, arbitrarily, the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. I finished the last book a few months ago, something I'd been putting off since it came out in 2020 because I didn't want the series to be over. It's only a matter of time til I do a full re-read.

21. The book(s) on your school reading list you actually enjoyed.

So many of them, honestly? It was always much rarer for me to NOT enjoy a novel I was assigned. A few that I loved in particular: Middlemarch (George Eliot), To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Ulysses (James Joyce), Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys), Daniel Deronda (George Eliot), Ceremony (Leslie Marmon Silko), Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), Dubliners (James Joyce) .... I should stop or I WILL keep going. That's my top ten by virtue of being the first ten that came to mind.

47. What are the last three books you read?

Home by Nnendi Okorafor (Binti #2) Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #4) Tehanu by Ursula K LeGuin (Earthsea Cycle #4)

(I feel a little bad all of these are halfway through a series... I included the series names to put them in context 😂 every one of these was GREAT though, completely recommend!)

[sarah-aliterarylife]

5 Quick Reads

For our most recent public holiday in the UK, I wrote about my favourite doorstep novels (big books to get stuck into and take your time over).

Today, we’re going in a different direction, and I’ll be talking about some of my favourite quick reads.

We all live busy lives, and much as I love a big book, occasionally I crave the opposite: a short book I can read in a single weekend (or over 24 hours, if I’m on leave from work).

Here are five of my favourites:

Animal Farm by George Orwell (144 pages)

Ignore anyone who laughs at you when you tell them you’re reading this (which happened to me one day at work – it is possible the man in question thought I was talking about something else!).

Subtitled “A Fairy Story” this is actually anything but. A novella about the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm, who overthrow their human master Mr Jones and take over the running of the farm themselves, it’s a satire about totalitarian regimes (specifically Communism) and what happens when idealism is replaced by corruption and greed.

Granted, communism isn’t the most cheerful subject to acquaint yourself with on a sunny weekend, but Animal Farm is entertaining, powerful and terrifying in equal measure.

Shopgirl by Steve Martin (220 pages)

Yes, that Steve Martin. He writes books too!

I read this last year as part of a reading list. The prompt was “an author with the same initials as you”. I’m not the biggest Steve Martin fan, but I enjoyed the film version with Claire Danes and the author himself as her love interest, and so, over 3 long nights during the 2022 World Cup, I gave it a shot.

Shopgirl is a fun read, telling the story of Mirabelle, a lonely, adrift shop assistant who works in an LA department store. Mirabelle is pursued by two suitors: the older, emotionally unavailable millionaire Ray, and penniless, equally adrift Jeremy. It’s dark, funny and just a bit cool. I loved it.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (180 pages)

You didn’t expect me to write a list of quick reads without including The Great Gatsby, did you?

The quintessential novel of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby is one of the few novels that both myself and my sister thoroughly enjoyed. The tale of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his doomed romance with the socialite Daisy Buchanan, told by Gatsby’s acquaintance Nick Carraway, there is a reason this one regularly makes an appearance on lists of the greatest novels ever written.

It’s very readable, it’s concise, and it doesn’t meander. The characters are flawed but likeable, and most importantly they are relatable.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of making Jay Gatsby’s acquaintance, sit down this week and do so immediately. You won’t want to leave.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (104 pages)

One for a dark, cold, rainy night. I was gifted this book as a student, as part of a bound boxset of mystery and horror novels. It was part of a larger collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. Many people know what a “Jekyll and Hyde character” is, think they know the plot and hence avoid the book. Don’t be that person.

It reads like a mystery thriller, so if you’re not into horror novels (like me), there is still much here for you to enjoy.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is very much the perfect short story, an absolutely riveting thriller. The plot races along at a breakneck pace (Stevenson himself wrote the original draft in less than three days), and if you’re anything like me, you’ll wish by the end that you didn’t already know what was coming!

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (192 pages)

One night, in the days before Netflix and Disney Plus, I was bored. I was in search of something to watch on TV and began channel hopping, when I came across a film called Wide Sargasso Sea. I had missed the first few minutes, but something about it grabbed me instantly. I was riveted and didn’t move from my seat until the film was finished. I’ve never seen it shown on any television channel or streaming service from that day to this. Having searched fruitlessly for months to find a copy of the film (these were the dark days when such things were not instantly available), I decided instead to read the novel on which it was based.

A prequel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a white heiress living in Jamaica, who meets and marries the young Mr Rochester. It is essentially the story of how their marriage disintegrates and she becomes the Madwoman in the Attic of Charlotte Bronte’s novel.

I later donated Wide Sargasso Sea to a book swap shop in Tenerife, in the hope that someone else would discover it and love it as much as I did. And perhaps one day the BBC will decide to show the film again!

What are your favourite quick reads?

[devious-little-milkmaiden]

All The Books I Read in 2023 (and My Personal Ratings)

The Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Fiction)

6/10

Based off of the character of Bertha (Rochester's wife) from Jane Eyre, this is a short read. The writing style isn't my personal favorite, as I feel it's a little bit underdeveloped. I appreciate Rhys' choice to portray Antoinette as a morally gray character (especially regarding her racism, which can't really be passed off as a "product of the time") while still maintaining that she doesn't deserve the treatment she's given. The language does have some good moments. I do recommend this to anyone who's read "Jane Eyre", as it could serve as an interesting re-assessment of Rochester's character, though you should note that I myself have never read Jane Eyre.

Brutal Imagination - Cornelius Eady (Poetry)

10/10

This is an incredible collection of poetry which tackles racism in a really fascinating way. Brutal Imagination is a collection of poems written from the persona of the anonymous black man Susan Smith claimed stole her car and killed her children. If you aren't familiar with the case, Susan Smith, a woman from Union, SC, let her car roll into a lake, killing her two sons. She then made up the story about the armed, anonymous black man. It's interesting to speculate about this detail specifically: why did Smith choose to claim it was a black man? Was it a conscious decision she made, knowing that the race of the supposed suspect would make it more believable? Was the race descriptor a subconscious decision based on her own prejudice?

In this collection, Eady portrays the "armed black man" as materializing into existence when Smith gives her report to police, rather than a concrete person. The collection is rife with nuance and vulnerability, and Eady is an incredible poet. I cannot recommend this collection enough. However, I don't like the final section, which is an excerpt from a completely unrelated collection of poetry by Eady, "Running Man". It feels shoehorned in, maybe per request from the publishing company or something. I recommend just skipping it or reading it separate from the rest of the collection.

The City in Which I Love You - Li-Young Lee (Poetry)

7/10

Another incredibly strong poet language- and structure-wise. Rife with symbolism and references you could analyze and over-analyze for ages. However, it does suffer from some of the stereotypical pitfalls of poetry: intimate scenes for intimacy's sake, and self-referential moments that aren't possible for the reader to understand. However, as a whole, it's pretty good.

The Afterlife and Other Stories - John Updike (Short Stories)

10/10

This is definitely biased, because John Updike is my favorite writer of all time. This short-story collection is quintessential Updike: the mundane being given its beautiful due. Read through completely, the story components can definitely get repetitive: mostly from the perspectives of middle-aged men, married to women with varying levels of satisfaction. While I can recommend Updike as a writer, I can't recommend him as a diverse writer. Therefore, I combine this recommendation with Oyinkan Braithwaite and Mohsin Hamid (I have read very, very little of Hamid's work but from what I have read he is a great writer. I intend to read more of his in the future).

The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (Fiction)

9/10

I have a bit of trouble with sitting down for long periods of time with a book, so this one definitely took a bit of time to finish (but I did it!!). It was a thoroughly pleasant read, mostly due to Tolkien's writing. Brevity is not his strong suit, so if you're more of a fan of action-centered books that keep lengthy passages to a minimum, than this may not be an enjoyable read for you. However, if you don't mind or even enjoy pages-long infodumping (that's the only way I can describe it), this book is right for you. I watched the movie series first and was surprised at how much was left out of them! It was a pleasant surprise, however, as there was so much more to delve into with Fellowship. I do intend on reading the rest of the series, including The Hobbit, at some point.

I usually don't enjoy high fantasy novels as I find that they can get cliche and repetitive without expanding or subverting the cliches they're filling. However, considering that LOTR was one of the first high fantasy series, it doesn't fall into this rut. It definitely possesses the archetypes of a classic hero's journey, yet often expands upon them.

My Immortal - XXXbloodyrists666XXX (Novel)

6/10

A playful "satire" (it's so mindless that I hesitate to label it as a satire) that has several laugh-out-loud moments. Though many readers may become annoyed with its flat-out disobeying of Harry Potter canon without any signaling of it being an AU, it's incredibly entertaining, especially since it's clear that the author has never picked up a single Harry Potter book. Gets more and more unintelligible as the chapters continue. Fantastic.

Maus, Vol. I and II - Art Spiegelman (Graphic Novel)

10/10

Not only should you read banned books, you should read this banned book. The art style is incredibly expressive considering that everybody is represented by animals. I'm not going to say it has "dark moments" because it is quite literally a book about the Holocaust. I learned several things I did not know before about concentration camps and the Holocaust as a whole: there's so much in here that textbooks didn't teach me. It's a very fascinating intersection between personal and universal history. Here's a quote from my thesis statement from an essay about Maus, because I am lazy, but also because I think it's an effective summary on my feelings about these graphic novels: "Heroic tales conventionally have morals at the end of them, something about how someone’s good character led to them being able to make it out of an experience others did not. But Maus does not congratulate Vladek [Art Spiegelman's father] for his savviness: it comes off less as a gift and more as a survival instinct. Vladek and Anja [Art's mother] lost their home, their family, and their sense of safety. The importance of Vladek’s story is not to congratulate him for his intelligence, but rather put into perspective the brutality of the Holocaust: even Vladek’s intelligence could not save him from the horrific experiences the Jews were subjected to. It was a lose-lose situation: live the torturous experience or die from it."

I cannot stress enough how incredibly important it is to read this book.

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice (Novel)

7/10

I am a HUGE fan of the movie, which I watched first, then decided to read the book. (Side note: I know people have their qualms about watching the movie before reading the book, but I think in some cases it helps to visualize scenes from the book. Also, most of the time, books have more in the story than movies, so it's sort of like bonus content--and you aren't getting all annoyed while watching the movie and going, "They left this out!! How could you leave that out?!" Of course, this doesn't apply to every book and its movie adaptation.)

The book version of IWTV was quite the enjoyable ride! Anne Rice... she gets it. I don't know what "it" is, but she just does. Her writing is strong, her characters tactile and brimming with energy, and her storytelling ability absolutely magnificent.

However:

There is something really weird going on with the relationship between Claudia and Louis, and I don't think Rice intended it to be pedo-y?

It is a bit bloated, which can make it hard to recognize thematic parallels.

Above Us the Milky Way - Fowzia Karimi (Novel, Autofiction)

6/10

Based on Karimi's personal experiences growing up in Afghanistan and being forced to seek refuge, AUTMW takes a highly abstract and speculative approach to this personal history with an abecedarian chapter structure. It has several strong moments, but overall it feels very disjointed. I do recommend reading this book, though I wouldn't say it's the most important book you could read regarding this subject.

[saint-starflicker]

Florian on YouTube did this breakdown of Romani stereotypes in Wuthering Heights and especially Heathcliffe, and the main reason I read (just finished reading yesterday!) Jane Eyre is to find out what Wide Sargasso Sea did with the story. I ended up liking Jane Eyre a lot more than I expected to, even though there is casual antiziganism, antisemitism, indigenous stereotyping, whatever Georgiana's weight gain is supposed to imply...and phrenology that I'm not sure is ironic or satirical anymore.

And yes that's not fun to read. When we recognize that these are products of their time...just as, I'm sure, Wide Sargasso Sea will prove to be a product of its time even though it was recommended to me as an endeavor to fix Jane Eyre that was the product of an earlier time...What should that mean, though?

For my part, I'm thinking it means that even though Charlotte Brontë was a keen observer of the (white) people around her (St. John holier-than-thou but Jane is not going to have a problem with the colonialism in his missionary vocation or giving him the final word in her story, why Eliza and Georgiana don't get along, why Diana and Mary do, etc.) she still had unexamined prejudices that she wasn't given the life experiences to examine. This book is a snapshot of that. I think gladly that we're in the 21st century when there have already been conversations and foundations for CRT readings (though as of now I get the sense that's still not as well established a literary analysis framework as Marxist or less intersectional feminist readings) that we can say what's not fun about it—as opposed to maybe being in the 1850's and reading Jane Eyre and feeling that's there's something tiresome and uncomfortable and not fun about it but maybe not being able to clarify why nor access the writings of people who can put better why (because—no internet.)

While Wide Sargasso Sea was next on my list, I did watch Picnic at Hanging Rock between chapters, and in the 2018 miniseries adaptation (spoilers under Read More)

Marion Quade is rewritten and cast as an Aborigine girl—so now I'm tempted to read Picnic at Hanging Rock next instead so as to maybe wrangle something about how reparative chromatization* is (or isn't) in the miniseries adaptation.

* chromatic fiction was introduced to me in 2015 as something fanfiction writers were doing when they (for example) write Bucky Barnes as nisei or Mary Poppins as South Asian Indian to explore what "work" that race changeup does in/to the story, what other dimensions that opens up for storytelling...but now when I look up "chromatic" fanfiction it's all about a default colorblind world until the characters meet their soulmate and then they see colors like being The Receiver in that dystopia, so I guess the general interest in exploring storytelling in that direction didn't really last? Which I completely understand if it went more sort of "Stop with the racebending! It fixes nothing! Write with our #OwnVoices maybe" which I fully support that last part while also I still think that chromatizing Marion Quade was a generally good decision.

can we talk about how Brontë works are actually very racist like WOW um HOLY SH*T I get it Heathcliff is an animal beast whatever and he’s the only brown man I GET IT PLEASE CALM DOWN. And I also get that Bertha is not human and she’s the only Creole / WOC!! And you don’t need several paragraphs describing Jamaica like this WHY DID YOU EVEN COLONISE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU HATE IT??? AAAAAA

Edit: btw fellows I still love the Brontës and their works I'm just saying in this post that their dehumanising descriptions of the POCs in their stories aren't fun to read 😭🙏🏽. They're still great books but eh they're products of their time, and like, I can still hate those dehumanising descriptions of people like me.

[moonlightfilly]

Mr Rochester (derogatory)

[newjenns]

what would you say are like the top 5 books that are considered classics that like really impacted you or that you just really liked? im trying to expand my horizons from just murder mysteries and books about biology lmao

YAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY okay i’ll provide a list as best i can also if you do end up reading any of them PLEEK lmk or if u get confused or sumn i’d love to talk about them but okay anyway

1. the metamorphosis by franz kafka - a man who spent his entire life working to support his family wakes up one day to find he’s turned into a giant bug. i literally think about this book every day of my life and it genuinely made me rethink Everything about life and what makes it worth living. i was reading it for a class and i ended up finishing it way before i was supposed to bc i was so enraptured by the story. easy to read and pretty short !

2. the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald - follows nick carraway a newcomer to new york as he watches new money jay gatsby fall in love with the married to old money daisy buccanon. commentary on the death of the american dream for the silent generation in the 1920s ! it’s by far my favorite high school assigned reading book another easy to read mid sized book ! the movie with tobey maguire and leo dicaprio is also pretty good imo !

3. wide sargasso sea by jean rhys - this is a 1960s feminist post colonial prequel spin off to jane eyre but can absolutely be read as a stand-alone ! it tells the story of antoinette cosway who’s family has lost everything after the british leave jamaica in total disarray. she’s married off to a rich european man called me rochester and she’s eventually driven insane by her suffering and loss of identity at the hands of her husband. great for the my year of rest and relaxation girlies tbh. i remember this book being a little more difficult to get through than i like but the story itself is so good i persevered

4. the sun also rises by ernest hemingway - if i’m being honest a lot of nothing happens in this book but the frivolous conversation and happenings with the understanding that there’s more going on beneath the surface for all of the characters mentally is the whole point. it follows a group of american friends in europe who are veterans from world war 1 all trying to deal with their ptsd as best they can. i love hemingway’s style of writing and tbh i try to emulate it myself when i write. it’s pretty easy to read but the dialogue can be confusing bc he doesn’t use a lot of indicator tags also sorry for putting two lost generation writers they just speak to me …

5. the outsiders by s.e. hinton - idek if this counts as a total classic but it falls in the realm of to kill a mockingbird, the catcher in the rye etc so i’m counting it ! this was probably the very first assigned reading book that i genuinely enjoyed back in middle school so it’s an easy read and a midsized book. follows a group of boys (greasers) from the wrong side of town in the 1950s deal with their social statuses, broken families, and their love for each other. such a genuinely heartwarming yet heartbreaking read i’m getting chills just thinking about the ending. the movie is also amazing if you check that out !

[drunkwhenimadethis]

I just absolutely died while bringing my groceries back home from the market, my landlady heard me panting and burst out in laughter she’s like 60 and does the steps with such grace. Positano women. I aspire. I cleaned the house before I left which is so perfect. I got vodka and I’m going to make a lemon vodka cocktail and drink it outside while the sun sets. I also am almost finished reading Wide Sargasso Sea and it’s like a Madame Bovary situation where I’m absolutely in love w a book but don’t ask me the plot because it’s the lush descriptions and evocative imagery that I’m possessed by. I adore the descriptions of post-colonial Jamaica like the huge mountains and greenery and the hibiscus flowers and the heat and guava and machetes smashing through the wilderness and the little bibliography notes on the Creole language I really like it because I read it and I feel like I'm there. The very brief dialogues by side characters about slavery being reborn into Law/Language made me realize I want to read much more about this period of history.

[stefito0o]

My TBR for the 48 hour readathon hosted by @princessofbookaholics

I am currently reading Wide Sargasso Sea, just reached Rochester's part today.

As for A Midsummer Night's Dream I thought I'll read it now after listening to the last episode of The Sandman Act I.

I will probably finish both of these and start something else but didn't want to put a pressure on myself and besides I am not sure what I want to read next 🤔