#rebecca quasi

[librofelice]

" Mal d' Amore..." (Parte 1 -) ...5 Medici eccezionali ed appassionati .

IL DOTTOR JAKE LINLEY -

Fa alcune brevi apparizioni e lo vediamo in azione all'interno della saga dei "Bow Street Runners" (di Lisa Kleypas)- precisamente ne "L'amante di Lady Sophia"; in cui fa subito sfoggio di una personalità divertente , ironica e irriverente. La storia d'amore che lo vede protagonista invece è in "Nodi d'Amore" di Lisa Kleypas, in cui la sua gigantesca cotta per Lydia Craven viene finalmente allo scoperto.

Lydia Craven ha deciso di sposarsi seguendo la ragione, non il cuore. Ma il bacio che le ruba il dottor Jake Linley risveglia in lei sentimenti che pensava di aver dimenticato. Potrà davvero sposare un uomo che non ama? Dopo Infine, tu e Sognando te, Lisa Kleypas ci regala il racconto Nodi d'amore, legato anch'esso alla serie dei Giocatori.

https://www.amazon.it/Lamante-Sophia-Serie-Street-Runners-ebook/dp/B00JEPFKQQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NQJ8F5QOR1PQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.t04PWoXdaiZY9lPimR_PdTipohg69VtOxKOryiCqYKDGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.W1QdrJbYrBPEQKcOccp8vwXTdbQHzfhwQ1Haf-VH1u8&dib_tag=se&keywords=l%27amante+di+lady+sophia&qid=1742404515&sprefix=l%27amante+di+ldy%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.it/Nodi-damore-Lisa-Kleypas-ebook/dp/B00THXPA42/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BT5JZBZNW9RQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.P5puddn36GZFKI1ToaAHqYBkwlIlJXfvY3f0ZKkuxFg.ZLPUUhaFS9w_6F9IZLGCkrr-VDXqKRCG8K14wLn2HlM&dib_tag=se&keywords=nodi+d%27amore+lisa+kleypas&qid=1742404527&sprefix=nodi+d%27amore%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1

IL DOTTOR ARTHUR LAKE -

Il dottor Lake fa la sua comparsa nel libro "Scacco Matto, Vostra Grazia" (di Rebecca Quasi) in quanto amico della protagonista Miss Emma Thomas . Il libro a lui dedicato è "Abilene" di Rebecca Quasi. Non è cosa semplice descrivere la bellezza e la complessità del personaggio di Arthur Lake definito all'inizio del libro come "un borghesuccio perbene". In verità dietro lo sguardo e le azioni del dottor Lake c'è un mondo intero fatto di onestà , buonsenso ma anche grandissima passione. La sua vocazione per la medicina viene spinta oltre il limite di ciò che la morale impone , ma lui non esita a fare la cosa giusta. E' un uomo che combatte costantemente con la sua coscienza e con il suo cuore. Il suo amore per Abilene - Lady Stonefield è complesso e non fa sconti. Una storia struggente, dove non c'è giusto o sbagliato; ma c'è la vita.

Londra 1837 - Abilene Fairfax è abituata a dare scandalo al Ton e non si cura delle chiacchiere e alle maldicenze che la seguono da quando ha sposato il vecchio Conte di Stonefield. Arthur Lake è un amico d’infanzia della Duchessa di Clarendon, che ha riversato nella professione medica e nell’affetto per il figlio la sua passione e le sue speranze. Quando le condizioni di salute del Conte si aggravano, Lady Stonefield decide che deve dare a tutti i costi un erede al casato. Contatta così il dottor Lake, affinché attesti il suo stato e la segua nella gravidanza e nel parto. Basta poco perché il senso etico e morale con cui Arthur Lake conduce se stesso e la professione medica vadano in collisione con la spregiudicatezza della contessa e ancora meno perché i due provino una forte attrazione reciproca. Il decesso del conte e la nascita di una femmina sconvolgeranno i piani di Abilene, separandola dalla figlia e allontanandola da Londra. Il destino però ha in serbo altri piani e nell'estate del 1841 le cose cambiano...

https://www.amazon.it/Scacco-matto-Vostra-Grazia-Rebecca-ebook/dp/B0BRFHFMLD?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JuV2pRd2LOwx8dSI4DM1gwu29OiBzhp94nnn35xmt8HxPS0niaCOkfxltu0XcwhSaaknBJ9XeaUcnW-lkKy4-45NryLG0QGnQyz_Lu16ptht6FQzqjD3XEFrbRF7cm8hkKQkZHHwrGHguD3ET7gESEh2BFBgMv-eL0ZmjbPcK9GJ9eqlPiG2S4J2UAzLVIloeFKoFTW2x3GbVGtcWKtPqs3bbQSClBHFAIzBt2my4Hs.oVMrNfDoHmDh1H34W5vFdYCyXFcnGtFZUHqH-oC87qc&dib_tag=AUTHOR

https://www.amazon.it/Abilene-Rebecca-Quasi-ebook/dp/B0B8JPK71Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=80UKRKZE2KOF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bb9ztROWgRP5ZW5HXE2wIw.UH5evuFKK_zpXENj6xAbWan7nfFIyE-LgRsFysPJ18M&dib_tag=se&keywords=abilene+rebecca+quasi&qid=1742404939&sprefix=abilene%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-1

LA DOTTORESSA GARRETT GIBSON -

La Dottoressa Gibson è un omaggio alla "vera" Dottoressa Elisabeth Garrett Anderson, la quale non senza ostacoli conseguì la laurea in Medicina alla Sorbona nel 1870 e nel 1873 diventò il primo medico donna abilitato in Gran Bretagna. (Poco dopo, la British Medical Association modificò il suo regolamento impedendo l'accesso alla professione medica alle donne per i successivi 20 anni ) La Dottoressa Anderson fu cofondatrice del primo ospedale con personale femminile e la prima preside di una facoltà di medicina della Gran Bretagna. Il personaggio di Garrett Gibson è un personaggio molto importante all'interno della Saga della famiglia "Ravenels" di Lisa Kleypas. Fa la sua prima apparizione in "Una moglie per Winterborne"(The Ravenels vol.2) , proseguendo nel "Diavolo in primavera" (The Ravenels vol.3) , e la rincontriamo in "Un matrimonio per Cassandra" (The Ravenels vol.6) . In ogni volume in cui lei è presente, il suo lavoro ed il suo supporto diventano fondamentali per la sopravvivenza di molti membri e amici della famiglia Ravenels. Il libro che la vede Protagonista è "Come due sconosciuti" (The Ravenels vol.4) di Lisa Kleypas. Se fino a prima del 4°libro vedevamo Garrett Gibson come una donna forte , risoluta , medico eccellente, grande sostenitrice delle tecniche all'epoca avanguardistiche del Dottor Lister, nel libro a lei interamente dedicato possiamo godere di una nuova prospettiva, la logica fa posto ad un amore grande , quello per  Ethan Ransom (anch'egli legato alla famiglia Ravenels ) senza cedere il passo completamente. La Dottoressa Gibson non molla mai , sa difendersi da sola e salva più di una vita, non soltanto sul tavolo operatorio.

Garrett Gibson è l'unica donna medico di Inghilterra, coraggiosa e indipendente come un uomo. Ma non ha mai avuto tempo per una relazione amorosa. Fino a quando non conosce Ethan Ransom, ex detective di Scotland Yard. Di lui si dice che sia un assassino, di certo è pericoloso, soprattutto per Garrett. Perché da nessuno si è mai sentita attratta così...

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B098TYXWMD?binding=paperback&qid=1742406321&sr=8-2&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk

LA DOTTORESSA LETTY BARTON -

Lettuce Barton detta Letty , è la protagonista de "La doppia vita di Letty" di Eleanor Webster. Una giovane che fin dalla più tenera età ama leggere e studiare ed ha una visione della medicina molto viva e concreta. Non è la classica debuttante e si oppone in ogni modo ad una vita fatta di balli e futili chiacchiere. La sua passione per la medicina non si limita allo studio di libri e riviste scientifiche; riesce infatti, in abiti maschili a frequentare i laboratori di anatomia dei Guy's Hospital di Londra ed in seguito segue il lavoro di varie levatrici per imparare più che può "sul campo". Una giovane donna forte e battagliera che crescendo entra in possesso della sua eredità e costruisce una vita per sè incentrata sull'aiuto delle persone, soprattutto degli abitanti delle campagne in cui va a vivere. Pur di aiutare la sua comunità inventa una sorta di alter ego ovviamente maschile , quello del Dottor Hatfield, grazie al quale cura bambini e madri con grande soddisfazione fino all'arrivo di un giovane uomo segnato da profondi traumi e ferite che solo lei saprà lenire e comprendere ... ma la battaglia sarà molto accesa prima del lieto fine d'obbligo.

Inghilterra, 1815 Letty Barton è disposta a tutto pur di non dover rinunciare alla sua più grande passione, la medicina, anche a travestirsi da uomo per visitare le pazienti sotto il falso nome di dottor Hatfield. Quando, però, si trova a dover curare la sorella di Lord Anthony Beauchamp, la sua copertura rischia di saltare. Fra Letty e Tony, tempo prima, era già scoccata una scintilla, culminata poi in una notte di passione e in una proposta di matrimonio che Letty aveva rifiutato, sapendo che il suo segreto sarebbe stato messo a rischio. Ma la verità trova sempre la strada giusta per rivelarsi e quando Tony scopre la doppia vita della donna che ama, la allontana bruscamente, non riuscendo a scrollarsi di dosso secoli di pregiudizi. Finché la professionalità e la competenza di Letty non risulteranno fondamentali per salvare una giovane vita innocente.

https://www.amazon.it/doppia-vita-Letty-Harmony-History-ebook/dp/B07YVBW6C7/ref=sr_1_2?crid=22BL6N5THN233&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QLMRLM2xcl9OIx599nRLqHZs415vWmgzifZTwTjG5kMq5xLpYjJJ9w7drOUg8pxeGdWJKpEcdvfou0CfTydoGMAP97Jjt5wOcL8BOmqSQ8sAeTxjoScANOIQ5Her3_LChMEFadRyWZzYHLHUizLeCmWCi5nDzfDp0brUwPqeIj-XM0fbTTDttoIpA1oYh49I24d-g0mjEJPx6KXOt4pmkhgFyGsa_HV9XcZpmvAMpFEFcCDqAHkI4L8Ft8JQg9fPtH9dJIZLzhGNGnN3GcKpR7-rYAq3eIyULWSIP2t-SapULhRm4aD-nUtRXKxKis5S6MMtf4A63OzAj70t5unnQyhXC6w4Usj8EJY_iANkqAUprl-GkScVe_8SeLRcvAHrZxjViJp_tdr4_aScYMCiWuuQaTzbCIJNzP-R88D3GvbeY6wSYkoRy2rGlAfsNc_D.FV4Vvcx_sEDqzLhbSveO8eS_aV7g_kfUMLfTMh3ZjgI&dib_tag=se&keywords=eleanor+webster&qid=1742409699&sprefix=eleonor+webster%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-2

IL DOTTOR IAN KINLOCK -

Il Dottor Kinlock è un chirurgo di origini scozzesi , burbero e non più giovanissimo. Seguiamo la sua storia in "Patto d'Amore" di Mary Jo Putney. E' un personaggio chiave della storia , e grazie alla sua brillante intuizione e al suo tempestivo intervento salverà la vita del protagonista innescando una catena di inaspettati eventi che cambieranno ben quattro vite per sempre. Prova a combattere l'amore e a dedicarsi anima e corpo esclusivamente alla sua professione; ma non ha fatto i conti con una giovane assai determinata che porterà nella sua vita il bene che entrambi meritano davvero. Non si può non amarlo !

Dopo la morte del padre, quarto conte di Cromarty, lady Jocelyn Kendal, sua unica figlia bella e affascinante, scopre che per entrare in possesso dell'eredità che le spetta deve sposarsi entro i venticinque anni. Il tempo stringe e il duca da lei prescelto è troppo difficile da conquistare. Decide allora di sposare il maggiore David Lancaster, reduce dalla battaglia di Waterloo, in fin di vita per le ferite riportate. In cambio del matrimonio, l'uomo otterrà un vitalizio per la sorella Sally. Ma le condizioni di David miracolosamente migliorano e Jocelyn si trova di fronte a un uomo attraente e pieno di vita. Suo marito, per sempre!

https://www.amazon.it/Patto-damore-I-Romanzi-Oro-ebook/dp/B07351VJW2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TL9X9GAOJCQQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6-UdW88CMiwKeAl4qxxKDw.z7Toq26KKmRCI3uzS29BjBH92bZDpdHzjBpiHuKbnNo&dib_tag=se&keywords=patto+d%27amore+mary+jo+putney&qid=1742418331&sprefix=PATTO+D%27AMORE%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

[monsieurschnock]

UNE CHOSE QUASI DISTANTE | 6 JUIN – 6 JUILLET 2024 / Galerie Patel Brown (CA)

Oeuvre: Maya Fuhr, Sustained Silhouette, 2024, cotton rag print 6 JUIN – 6 JUILLET 2024 Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only so long as they are distant. Rebecca Solnit COMMISSAIRES : Joséphine Rivard et Roxanne Arsenault Une chose quasi distante / An Almost Distant Thing réunit diverses œuvres autour de l’idée du fragment, de la collecte et du…

[muatyland]

Miss Foley e il dottor Ballard | Quasi Rebecca

Miss Olivia Foley ha bisogno di un lavoro e il dottor Vincent Ballard è alla ricerca di un’infermiera.Miss Foley non è un’infermiera, tuttavia il dottor Ballard è troppo disperato per far caso a un dettaglio del genere. Comincia così un proficuo sodalizio professionale che sfocia in breve tempo in un piccolo scandalo, costringendo Miss Foley e il dottor Ballard a convolare a nozze.Decisi a…

[diceriadelluntore]

I Miei Libri del 2024

Il libro è una cosa: lo si può mettere su un tavolo e guardarlo soltanto, ma se lo apri e leggi diventa un mondo - Leonardo Sciascia

Giulio Giudorizzi - i Miti Delle Stelle

Jamie Ford - Sulla Via Dell'Incenso

Jonas Jonasson - Tre Amici Quasi Geniali Verso La Fine Del Mondo

Oscar Wilde - Il Fantasma Di Canterville e Altri Racconti

Julian Barnes - Elizabeth Finch

Luciano Canfora - Convertire Casaubon

Will Ferguson - Felicità©

William Dalrymple / Anna Anand - Koh-I-Nur

Hervé Clerc - A Dio Per La Parete Nord

Stefano Mancuso - Fitopolis, La Città Vivente

Sam Kean - La Brigata Dei Bastardi

Henry James - La Cifra Del Tappeto

Giorgo De Santillana / Hertha Von Dechend - Il Mulino Di Amleto

Rebecca Struthers - Memorie Di Un'Orologiaia

Alexander Lernet-Holenia - Due Sicilie

Daniel Mason - La Foresta Del Nord

Peskè Marty - Qui Il Sentiero Si Perde

Alexandre Dumas Figlio - La Signora Delle Camelie

Lauretta Colonnelli - La Vita Segreta Dei Colori

Fred Vargas - Sulla Pietra

Giorgio Pestelli - Il Genio Di Beethoven

Richard Osman - L'Uomo Che Morì Due Volte

Adam Thirlwell - Il Futuro Futuro

Stefano Bizzotto - Storia Del Mondo In 12 Partite Di Calcio

Edwin A. Abbott - Flatlandia

Shirley Jackson - L'Incubo Di Hill House

Ferdia Lennon - Eroi Senza Gloria

William Gaddis - Le Perizie

Michael Young - L'Avvento Della Meritocrazia

Eric Fouassier - Le Notti Della Morte Blu

Laurent Binet - Prospettive

A.K. Blakemore - L'Insaziabile

Tommaso Giartosio - Autobiogrammatica

Alessandro Baricco - Castelli Di Rabbia

Rosa Montero - Il Pericolo Di Essere Sana Di Mente

Beatrice Del Bo - Arsenico e Altri Veleni

Jenny Erpenbeck - Kairos

Il totale è 37 come nel 2023, le pagine sono aumentate, e per il secondo anno consecutivo supero il mio obiettivo personale delle 10 mila, sono arrivato a 11 750. Ho letto anche più di un classico per trimestre, tra cui anche dei saggi, e l'anno prossimo l'obiettivo è leggere un libro di un autore dell'età classica a trimestre.

Sulla qualità dei titoli, ammetto che dopo anni di ricerca e di perfezionamento delle fonti ne sbaglio pochissimi: alcuni rimarranno nel tempo, come L'Insaziabile, l'ultimo di Erpeneck (vincitrice dell'International Booker Price del 2024, un libro drammaticamente potentissimo), Lennon, Marty, Thirlwell. Libri del tutto particolari, tra l'autobiografia, il racconto e il saggio sono quello di Montero e Giartosio. Se devo notare una differenza, ho letto meno autori e autrici italiane, e una cosa che dovrei iniziare a fare è rileggere dei volumi di qualche anno fa, tipo una decina, e scoprire l'effetto che fa.

Chiunque voglia, può rebloggare, commentare e aggiungere i suoi libri o quelli che gli sono piaciuti di più, per diffondere autori, case editrici, idee.

Il libro è una delle possibilità di felicità che abbiamo noi uomini - Jorge Luis Borges

[mariacallous]

President Donald Trump fired two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, carrying out another legally dubious power grab at an independent federal agency.

Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya said on X that Trump had “illegally” removed him from the antitrust enforcement agency in the middle of his term, calling the move “corruption plain and simple.”

In an interview with HuffPost, Bedoya said he planned to challenge the firing in court, asserting that Trump had no legal basis for removing him.

He said he worried that Trump would turn the FTC into an agency that cuts sweetheart deals for friends of the administration, blessing the mergers of those who are politically connected. He noted that the FTC has ongoing cases against Meta and Amazon, whose founders, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, respectively, attended Trump’s inauguration.

“People are hearing the news and thinking of me ― they need to be thinking not about me but about the billionaires behind President Trump’s shoulder at the inauguration,” Bedoya said.

He went on, “Who does this benefit? Does it benefit the American people, or does it benefit the people who are behind the president?”

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, another Democratic commissioner, said in a statement that she had been fired “illegally” as well.

“Why? Because I have a voice. And he is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people,” Slaughter said of Trump.

Until Tuesday, the commission, which normally has five commissioners, had two Democrats and two Republicans, along with one vacancy. Former Chair Lina Khan, a Democrat, stepped down shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

Several other Democratic officials have also challenged their firings after Trump tried to remove them unilaterally.

Under Supreme Court precedent, the president generally cannot fire members of independent, quasi-judicial bodies except as authorized by Congress. The Trump administration, however, is challenging that 90-year-old holding in hopes the Supreme Court will overturn it.

Bedoya shared with HuffPost the email he received notifying him of his termination, which came from Trent Morse, Trump’s deputy director of presidential personnel.

“I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effectively immediately,” it stated.

The email went on to argue that the Supreme Court precedent barring such firings, known as Humphrey’s Executor, is unconstitutional.

[pinkiepiebones]

I NEED your Renfield headcanons. PLEASE.

-Youngest of several children. Babied all the time by his big brothers and sisters.

-Mother forbade him to learn things like sewing so his sisters taught him

-Born in February because everyone needs to suffer Being Aquarius with me

-He and his wife (Elizabeth Catherine Renfield) were both very queer and literally got married because Well This Is What We're Supposed To Do

-A sweet tooth that borders on obscene. How has this man not fallen in to some sort of sugar coma.

-Put a few drops of Dracula blood in his houseplants because he's scared of overwatering/underwatering them. So, quasi immortality.

-Breaks out in freckles if he's in the sun for extended periods of time

-Calls abbreviated things by their 'full name' just to annoy Rebecca (ie, "electronics bay," "automated teller machine," etc)

[o-uncle-newt]

(Ramble on why I think so below the cut- warning for strong opinions lol:)

I love The Nine Tailors (though it took time to make me love it, I won't lie- I tend to zone out during the change-ringing description bits). But I do not love Hilary Thorpe, I think the parts of the book with her in them are tonally out of place, and I think that the reason why this is true is because she's Sayers's most indulgent/unrepentant expy. I think it's true both on a purely book level, but also in terms of Sayers's actual biography.

First I'll note on a purely book level- Harriet might literally have Wimsey fall in love with her, but she has to go through a lot and change a lot to actually get with him. (Not to change for him, but just to grow somewhat as a person.) Miss Meteyard is probably the most "neutral" major Sayers expy, and possibly the one most true to life, but it's an important element of her place in the story that she doesn't get Wimsey at the end. Hilary though... it's basically a Daddy Long Legs without the creepy bit at the end where he marries her. Yes, her story in the book starts with tragedy, but she literally gets left two fortunes and has the admiration and patronage of a lord, and it's not subtly portrayed. It feels like it was painted in with a very broad and bold brush, unlike so much of the rest of the book which is very subtle in its human emotions and relationships.

She has that element to her which is probably the most indulgent thing for a certain kind of person, who my guess is includes a lot of the people who read Sayers (I'm certainly one of them)- she's a precocious teen and an adult- not just any adult, but a titled and brilliant one- recognizes her precocity and upcoming greatness (even without a whole lot of evidence) and celebrates her for them. There's a common trope in middle grade books of kids who are really talented or precocious in some way and make an impact in the adult world- think Roald Dahl or Andrew Clements, off the top of my head- and another genre, for young women a bit older, where it's specifically that that attention is quasi- (or actually!) romantic but in an unthreatening way that emphasizes both the character's precocity despite her youth and the fact that it's an adult who is older and has made their (usually his) way in the world who recognizes it. Let's say more of a Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm than a Daddy Long Legs, then.

To be clear- there is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of plot! Like I said, I loved that kind of thing when I was a kid, and to be honest I like it as an adult too. But usually, these books require the child/young woman in question to have internal development as part of the journey and part of the world building of what makes the character both sympathetic and precocious. The Nine Tailors doesn't really do that- Hilary has to live with great tragedy at the start of the book, but her own development as a person, and honestly our knowledge of her as a person, is relatively limited. She basically is how she is and Wimsey is (semi-paternally) into that because the way she is-precocious and somewhat aloof- is obviously awesome and she also ends up with a gazillion dollars and the emeralds. In terms of how Wimsey reacts to her, she's like mini-Harriet- but Harriet has to work for it somewhat. Not for Wimsey's affection for her, but for the richness of character that makes us care about Wimsey's affection for her.

So anyway, doesn't really work for me, and feels very out of place and garish in an otherwise intricately-painted book IMO. But also, I think it becomes even more blatant when you read about Cat O'Mary and Sayers's unfinished memoir.

So basically, sometime in the early 30s Sayers started writing a memoir, which she called My Edwardian Childhood. The funny part is she never made it to the actual Edwardian period- it only took her to about age five, when Victoria was still on the throne- but (though I've never read it- I do want to get my hands on it) it ends up being an account of her early years in Oxford and then the move to the fens, which she saw in retrospect as cutting her off from intelligent society in a way which stunted her. Having made it up to that move to East Anglia, she got so into the overall vibe of the location that she decided to put the memoir aside and work on a labor of love dedicated to this atmosphere of her upbringing- The Nine Tailors.

So, basically, Sayers got the idea for this book while doing some deep musings about her own childhood in that area, and while she was starting to critically think about what she was like as a child. We know that Sayers used real names of people from her childhood for the character names in The Nine Tailors, and it's said that Venables is based on her father. Why would it be a surprise that Hilary Thorpe might be based on her?

Once Sayers was done with The Nine Tailors, she started a totally different book- a semi-autobiographical novel, unrelated to the Wimsey novels, called Cat O'Mary. The main character, based on herself, was named Katherine rather than Dorothy, but her letters as well as biographical details match up enough for us to know that the account of her childhood is VERY aligned with what it was actually like for her. And, in fact, she goes into a lot of detail about what she was like- but with a much more critical eye on herself than she had in her memoir. She talks about having "developed all the faults and peculiarities of an only child whose entire life is spent among grown-up people. She was self-absorbed, egotistical, timid, priggish and, in a mild sort of way, disobedient." And honestly, even when you read a biography of her, or her collected letters from her childhood, that is something of the image of her as a young, precocious, coddled child that one gets (she was the only daughter of a minister who grew up very insulated and as the center of attention, playing only with children "imported" for her, more or less). Sayers never finished Cat O'Mary, and it's not 100% clear why- but it's hypothesized that it's because the overall point of the book in her mind was to convey the message that, by then, she'd already decided to include in Gaudy Night (through the eyes of another expy lol).

I feel a bit as though Hilary Thorpe is Sayers as she'd have written of herself in that more idealized memoir of hers- with perhaps a tad more wish fulfilment than she'd have given herself in that, but then again isn't that was Wimsey is for? And I wonder whether it's only after writing this ideal and beloved version of herself as a child, with the nostalgia that came from writing about the place she grew up in and in the frame of mind that led to her memoir, that she buckled down to actually engage with what that kind of precocious child who she was might have actually been like, how she really was/would have been accepted by adults, etc. With all the real life parallels between Hilary's personality and Sayers's, and the contrast between the somewhat twee idealization of Hilary and the more acerbic (and AFAIK more accurate to Sayers IRL, who was by many accounts a tough cookie, including from people who said it positively) portrayal of Katherine, it can be hard for me to really enjoy Hilary without a healthy dose of eye-rolling.

But like, the rest of the book is awesome so who cares?

[meddow]

To celebrate International Asexuality Day I’m going go give reasons why Una Chin-Riley/Number One is a glorious Ace icon.

Opening episode character introductions: Pike is making breakfast in bed for Marie, Spock is desperately hoping T’Pring will propose, Una has…found two random scientists, taken a ship out with like zero crew for like some random space thing, decided to do a quickie first contact on the side, and managed to wind up in an alien prison attempting to escape with a spoon. Getting bored while your friends are moping about their relationships/oncoming cruel fate and winding up on a crazy adventure, that is some iconic Ace behaviour right there.

She’s spent most of her life pretending to be human, which means trying to hide the fact she’s got super strength and her body puts on a lightshow whenever exposed to pathogens – so the classic Ace cliché of being more interested in cake than an partnered physical activity in which there is much sharing of body fluids is probably a superpower for her.

Una has a queer-coded storyline: It turns out she has been hiding who she is, has a whole episode in which she has to come out multiple times and deal with an array of reactions, is immediately arrested and put on trial by the quasi-military organisation she works for as soon they find out, and then is much happier when finally being able to be herself in the workplace and even sings a whole song about keeping secrets. Saying that, did you know that according to Stonewall’s Ace in the UK report 2023 that people of asexual orientation are significantly less likely to be out to family, neighbours and work colleagues than other sexual orientations for fear of a negative reaction. I’m certain Una being terrified of revealing she’s Illyrian and ultimately choosing to reveal herself cos she’s tired of living a lie likely resonates with many, many different people and groups. But just noting that the fear of coming out is also very central to many people’s experience of being Ace.     

Una/Neera can very much be read as that friendship which got messed up because it became a sexual relationship but the Ace person within it hadn’t figured out they were asexual yet – but then everything felt wrong and they couldn’t figure out why so reacted badly and the entire relationship went to shit, and it still hurts decades later.

Una knows how to invest in a friendship: and it’s making sure you win Enterprise Bingo together in the most spectacular/death risking fashion and also turning the gravity off during your life advice number in the musical episode so it is even more of A Moment.

Look, given there is so little Ace rep out there in media, I just think that having someone played by the ridiculously attractive Rebecca Romijn who has enough chemistry with other characters to be one half the fandom’s most popular het ship and one half of the fandom’s most popular femslash ship be Ace would be neat.

In conclusion:

(Inevitable disclaimer because it’s fandom: I’m not saying anyone is wrong about their view of Una and as a person who ships many Una ships, I love all her allo interpretations as well)

[f1wags-opinions]

Sooo… rebecca deleted her athleisures brand from her ig page, wonder why lol.

Lmaoo yeah i saw. She deleted it after she acquainted that dior PR person lol. I guess now she can finally move on from her persona of model/entrepreneur/quasi-athlete. Before you know it, she’ll adopt that “old money”/classy aesthetic lol

[the-badger-mole]

In Defense of Mrs. van Hopper

It is once again time for my periodic revisit to the novel Rebecca, and I have some thoughts. For such a famous book, with such a great film adaptation, I don't see a lot of discussion about it. So as I do with other random things that I don't have anyone to talk to about IRL, I'm going to post here. I'll be quick, I promise. Please join me in picking apart this nearly century old book about pathological jealousy, set in a society that doesn't exist anymore and featuring a main character who has no name.

Mrs. van Hopper wasn't a bad person. I know that the narrator and the Alfred Hitchcock adaptation wanted the audience to not like her, but honestly, aside from being a bit of a busybody, and a little overly dramatic she doesn't seem like a terrible employer. Had she picked someone a bit less intensely neurotic, she would've been a really good employer, I think. Nothing she asks the narrator to do is that difficult- arrange meals, pick up toiletries, play cards with Mrs. van Hopper and her friends. The narrator seems to have plenty of down time, even before Mrs. van Hopper gets sick and needs to be cared for by a nurse instead of her travel companion. Mrs. van Hopper herself encourages the narrator to get out and meet people her own age.

The worst thing Mrs. van Hopper ever did to the narrator was tell her the truth. Or at least the truth as she saw it. She told the narrator that Maxim de Winter, a man that the narrator had a 2 week long quasi friendship with- a man who was twice the narrator's age, mind you- had only asked her to marry him because he didn't want to go back to his big ol' mansion alone. I think the first few times I read this novel, I was mostly on the narrator's side about Mrs. van Hopper. Now, though, I think Mrs. van Hopper was genuinely trying to look out for the narrator. In any other novel, her warning would've been right. This 21 year old girl with abandonment issues, no self-esteem and who can barely manage making a declarative statement marrying a rich, powerful 42 year old man who hasn't shown any sort of real affection for her after knowing him for 2 weeks is a set up for disaster.

I can't find much on Mrs. van Hopper on my latest read of the novel to really dislike about her. Maybe I wouldn't want to be her friend, but she's not a monster. Even du Maurier's worst criticism is that she's vulgar and blunt, and yeah, Mrs. van Hopper is blunt, but she's a New Yorker. That's just how we roll. We are seeing Mrs. van Hopper through the narrator's eyes, and the narrator is not the most objective person. Frankly, the narrator's telling of the story leaves me thinking she was a terrible employee rather than Mrs. van Hopper being a terrible employer. I feel bad for Mrs. van Hopper. Well...I mean as bad as I can feel for someone who is rich enough to be able to afford to pay someone to be a travel companion.

[eolewyn1010]

Downton Abbey Fashion 41 - indoors fashion in 1922

Rose’s initial stringent color palette of either red outfits or blue ones is loosened up once she becomes a regular; she gets to wear pink shades and, as a quasi-adopted Crawley, purple. Side note, I’m not including the scene when she dons a maid dress because that’s just Anna’s uniform that she borrowed for five minutes and I already have a post about the servant uniforms in use this season.

A very girlish drop waist dress, this one has a print that almost makes it look like dotted with strawberries. Or like one giant strawberry. Never mind, it’s cute. A spread collar of white lace, short sleeves – Rose looks so young in this. Granted, she is the age Sybil was at the beginning of the first season, but Sybil was never the bubbly airhead that Rose starts out as.

Speaking of youthful vibes, Rose has this adorable cream sweater with a sailor collar and some blue piping, plus a band of blue checker around the drop waist. And I have an inexplicable weakness for this lacing closure on the front. By the way, this sweater is recycled from 1997’s Rebecca, and Rose will have another piece from the same movie next season.

Hm, I’ve seen shirts of this cut on the show that I liked better. But I guess that’s a matter of taste; this pattern isn’t really for me and neither is this shade of purple, despite looking good on Rose. I’m in favor of the neckline, so there’s that. Since she is wearing this at the very beginning of the season when Mary is still in black (and Edith in grey), this might be less of a fashion choice and more half-mourning decorum, although Rose also wears purple for fashionable purposes.

Like she does here. Rose’s former colors were red and blue, her new color is purple – let’s just throw them all together! Okay, in all fairness, this print is adorable. And with the top being cut in triangles instead of the more common rectangles of the time, the dress does have a little shaping to it. Somehow, they picked the exact right shade for the little piping trim, blue enough to blend in, yet electric enough to pop.

Technically, she wears this dress while going out for a dance, but she’s not running around on the air without a coat, so I’ll call it an indoors look. Lighting is not the priority at the dance, but believe me that it’s purple with a white print all over. And more white with a little lace trim for the under layer and collar; the overall composition is not glamorous, but quite nice, another playful and girly look to which she adds a cloche hat with a white flower ornament.

Back on blue, a simple long skirt and a long-sleeved shirt that looks like a silk satin. Rose likes this collar shape, doesn’t she? The geometric print keeps this from looking too boring, but I wish Rose would have gone with a contrasting skirt.

This shirt is nice; can I see more of it? It’s another cream one with blue square elements, a darker and a lighter blue shade that do something almost like an adventurous meander on one side, but otherwise are demoted to trim duty. Nice one, a bit baggy, but nice.

And now for one of the prettiest shades of pink I will get my eyes on around here and that Rose will repeat a few times next season: This dress is just on the meeting point between petal pink and peach, and it’s practically shining in and of itself. There could be no bigger compliment for Rose’s English Rose complexion, even though this is one of the few occasions when she’s not beaming. With the pearl strand and the white embroidery in orderly squares, this is one of her tamer looks, but the dress is of one of the drapier fabrics and looks like it could have some flow to it in motion.

[libero-de-mente]

𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗹'𝗔𝘃𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼

𝟱 𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯

Caro diario,

questa mattina la giornata si è aperta sotto grandi auspici.

Mentre mi avviavo per un vicolo deserto per raggiungere il centro cittadino, avevo un appuntamento di lavoro per me importante, ecco che noto per terra una banconota da cinquanta euro.

Cinquanta euro. Il mio primo pensiero è stato quello de "sarà sicuramente un facsimile, una di quelle banconote false che dietro riportano una pubblicità di un possibile sconto e bla, bla, bla"

Mentre il "bla, bla, bla" riecheggiava nella mia mente mi chino con molta goffaggine a raccogliere la valuta cartacea.

Si goffamente, perché io di avere la fortuna nel trovare banconote per terra non sono abituato. Mica sono Gastone Paperone cugino del più sfortunato Paperino.

Dopo averla raccolta, avendola controllata bene, mi accorgo che quella è una banconota autentica. La piega che portava mi ha fatto comprendere che era stata tenuta in un portafoglio o in una tasca.

Mi guardo attorno con aria di colpevolezza, come a voler trovare a tutti i costi il proprietario di quella banconota. Nessuno.

Alzo la testa per vedere se qualcuno, da qualche finestra, abbia visto la scena; pronto a scusarmi con un "l'ho trovata per terra, mica l'ho rubata". Nessuno.

Quella banconota mi spetta quindi di diritto, un po' come a dire "chi la trova se la tiene". Cose da asilo Mariuccia per intenderci.

Ripongo la banconota in tasca e mi avvio al luogo dell'appuntamento. Mentre cammino ripenso alla mia fortuna con il denaro. A parte qualche monetina, spiccioli in lire o centesimi, l'unica volta che trovai una consistente cifra di denaro fu... all'interno di un corposo portafoglio.

Quindici marzo millenovecentottantanove, al ritorno da San Siro dopo una partita di Coppa Campioni, così si chiamava l'attuale Champion League, passeggero in auto di un amico ci fermammo al casello autostradale di Milano per rientrare a casa. Notai qualcosa per terra dal lato passeggero e senza pensarci, mentre il conducente prelevava il biglietto, aprii la portiera e acciuffai al volo il malloppo.

C'era dentro tutto, oltre a circa ottocento marchi tedeschi, i documenti che davano un nome e un cognome al proprietario. Anche la foto del suo gatto.

Per restituire il tutto, denaro compreso, dovetti fare dei salti mortali. Neanche i Carabinieri, a cui mi ero rivolto, mi assicuravano che il denaro sarebbe arrivato a destinazione. Così rintracciai il proprietario da solo, farmi dare le sue coordinate bancarie e dopo aver versato la valuta sul mio conto fargli un bonifico. Il tutto stando attento al cambio valuta. Non volevo che gli mancassero dei soldi.

I documenti, foto del gatto compresa, glieli feci arrivare tramite un pacco assicurato con una società di spedizioni.

Tutta qui la mia fortuna.

Nel tardo pomeriggio, rientrato a casa, trovo figlio numero due sull'orlo della disperazione.

Gli chiedo cos'è successo, con gli occhi arrossati e tanta rabbia mi racconta che aveva messo da parte del denaro per comprare il regalo di Natale alla sua Rebecca. Ma una volta arrivato in negozio gli mancavano dei soldi, aveva perso cinquanta euro. Non sapeva né come né dove. Ha lavorato alcune sere per metterli da parte.

Lo rassicuro, può capitare un attimo di distrazione, e guarda caso fuori dal nostro cancello di casa ho trovato una banconota da cinquanta euro tra le foglie secche degli alberi. Mimetizzata. Ma che l'occhio vigile del papà l'ha notata. Recuperandogliela.

Mi guarda incredulo, ma ancora più incredulo è il suo sguardo quando dalla mia tasca estraggo la banconota. Lui sa che io non giro quasi mai con del denaro in tasca. Tra App per i parcheggi e i pedaggi, oltre alle carte per gli acquisti, ho sempre le tasche vuote.

Mi abbraccia, tira un sospiro di sollievo, rimette la banconota con le altre del "budget Rebecca" e mi promette che starà più attento. Così domani andrà di corsa in negozio a comprarle il regalo, prima che finisca.

Questa mattina era iniziata sotto un buon auspicio, questa sera è finita con un'aspettativa più grande. Quella di aver donato la serenità a mio figlio. Non avrei potuto utilizzare meglio quel denaro.

A fine giornata dunque non mi sono ritrovato "più ricco", ma "molto più felice". Perché convinto che chi ama si preoccupa di dare e non di ricevere.

[diceriadelluntore]

Lancette

Questo in foto è un capolavoro di arte artigianale: è un orologio Breguet che ha molteplici "complicazioni", cioè mostra dei dati come l'equazione del tempo (la differenza tra il tempo solare medio, il nostro tempo civile della durata convenzionale di ventiquattrore, e il tempo solare vero, che varia in funzione dell’orbita irregolare della terra intorno al sole) o il calendario perpetuo e sul quadrante finemente lavorato a guilloche sfoggia un tourbuillion, geniale invenzione di Abraham Louis Breguet, cioè l'installazione dell'intero scappamento (il bilanciere con la rispettiva molla, l'ancora e la ruota di scappamento, ossia le parti più sensibili agli effetti della forza di gravità) all'interno di una gabbia mobile che compie una rotazione completa ogni minuto. In questo modo, i difetti, che hanno una cadenza regolare, si compensano reciprocamente. Questo è un prodotto fatto quasi totalmente a mano da un abilissimo orologiaio. E abilissima è l'autrice di questo libro, che ho adorato

Rebecca Struthers è una delle ultime orologiaie del Regno Unito. In questo saggio racconta la sua storia prima di studentessa (fino alla laurea in orologeria), poi di giovane artigiana e infine da affermata restauratrice di orologi antichi e, insieme al marito Craig, fine produttrice di pezzi unici, fatti completamente a mano nel loro piccolo laboratorio di Birmingham. Ogni capitolo è un pezzo di storia della sua vita, un pezzo di storia dell'orologio e un pezzo di meccanica, dove spiega con la massima semplicità (tipica di chi è maestro di una disciplina) le meraviglie tecniche che indossiamo al polso ogni giorno.

Oltre le incredibili storie dell'oggetto, i cui andamenti variano da oggetto di lusso a status symbol economico, in una sorta di spirale sinusoidale di successo, commercio e crisi e dei personaggi a loro legati (scienziati, re e regine, inventori, industriali, geni come Breguet, generali, esploratori, sportivi e così via), ci sono due aspetti che mi hanno colpito profondamente e personalmente:

l'importanza del lavoro degli artigiani, e soprattutto l'importanza delle scuole per gli artigiani: il saggio di Rebecca Struthers è anche un viaggio nel declino di una certa idea di trasmissione del sapere che è coinciso con la fine delle scuole di alta specializzazione (Struthers è stata una delle ultime a completare un corso di studi specifico per l'oreficeria e l'orologeria, che adesso non esiste più). In un paese come il nostro, che spesso solo a parole si vanta della propria tradizione artigiana (che ancora resiste), dovrebbe essere un motivo di studio e dibattito;

Ci sono delle pagine che ho sentito molto vicine a me quando Struthers parla della decisione di mettersi in proprio, e di aprire un laboratorio "fuori dal tempo": le difficoltà iniziali, il modificare macchinari vecchi e usati, il primo stipendio serio dopo anni ma allo stesso tempo la certezza che una scelta di qualità, che comporta molti più problemi di una scelta di quantità, con il tempo sia premiante soprattutto a livello di piena soddisfazione di sè. e l'importanza di fare le cose con le mani, che è un momento creativo eccezionale.

[uovoc]

2023 Media consumption

God tier: media that invoked blorbo-induced euphoria, mini-obsession, or just haunt me

White Cat Legend (大理寺日志, Dali Court Journal) - donghua, seasons 1 and 2. The new vice minister of the imperial court of criminal justice is, unfortunately, a cat demon. Tang Dynasty workplace comedy/political intrigue. Lovely animation, sick fight scenes, and catboys.

Scissor Seven (刺客伍六七) - donghua, seasons 2-3. Netflix summary: "Seeking to recover his memory, a scissor-wielding, hairdressing, bungling quasi-assassin stumbles into a struggle for power among feuding factions." Season 1 was just ok at best, season 2 was great, season 3 was phenomenal, season 4 was meh.

Derkholm duology by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

God Troubles Me / Hanhua Riji (汉化日记) - donghua. Cringefail loser girl Su Moting, her cringefail smartphone god, and her cringefail cat (demon) have to save the world. But first she has to go to work. And get takeout. And watch dramas. The premise sounds SO cringe but it's well-executed and hilarious. And actually a pretty sharp but good-humored window into the delights and horrors of modern everyday life in china.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (reread). At the peak of the California gold rush, hitmen Charlie and Eli Sisters are hired for a job that Eli is liking less and less. 1st-person perspective of a stone-cold killer, where it turns out the killer is just Some Guy. Who is kind of awkward. And pathetic. And maybe not very bright.

Gobelins graduation animated shorts: "Chroniques de l'Eau Salée" (2021), "Last Summer" (2022), and "Go Fishboy" (2022). Available to watch on YouTube. Got caught up on 2021 and 2022 and these are the ones that will haunt me.

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi - manga (reread). Teenage martial artist is cursed to transform into a hot girl whenever he's splashed with cold water. Still some of the funniest and most deranged comedy I've ever read.

"Golden Age" - short story by Naomi Novik set in the Temeraire universe. Hilarious and delightful Feral Temeraire AU.

Just ok: media that I didn't hate, and maybe even enjoyed

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore

Glass Onion (2022) dir. Rian Johnson

Puss in Boots: the Last Wish (2022) dir. Joel Crawford

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Witch's Business by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones (reread) - Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Mixed Magics, The Pinhoe Egg

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Sharyn November. Faves: "Beauty" by Sherwood Smith, "Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones, and "Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer.

All Systems Red (异星危机) by Martha Wells, Simplified tr. by 黎思敏

All Saints Street (万圣街) - donghua, seasons 1-3

Moira's Pen by Megan Whalen Turner

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Selected Discworlds: Thief of Time, Unseen Academicals (reread)

The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer (reread)

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer

"Louise", Gobelins 2021 graduation animated short. Pretty good, but not god tier.

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Most of it was a slog, but the ending was wonderfully tender.

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

Spinning by Tillie Walden

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (reread)

The Mermaid (美人鱼) - movie (2016)

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Fave: Exhalation

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Motorcity - cartoon (rewatch)

Sing 2 - movie

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - movie

White Cat Legend (大理寺日志) manhua through chapter 186

A Monster in Paris - movie (rewatch)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - movie

Lionboy trilogy by Zizou Corder: Lionboy, The Chase, and The Truth (reread)

The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (封神第一部：朝歌风云) - movie

Our Flag Means Death - season 2

Skellig by David Almond (reread). Even more unsettling and magical than I remembered.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (人渣反派自救系统) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Savvy by Ingrid Law (reread)

The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry

Golden Age and Other Stories by Naomi Novik. "Golden Age" alone was amazing. Every thing else: meh.

Wonder by RJ Palacio except that the ending sucked

蓝溪镇 (Lanxi Zhen/Blue Creek Town) - manhua (reread), through chapter 112

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Disliked and often DNF'd

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Phoenix Rising by Karen Hesse

Palimpsest by Catherine Valente

Knives Out (2019) dir. Rian Johnson

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nhi Vgo

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Genuinely creative concept, enjoyable characters, and horrifying (affectionate) ending! Writing was just very, very bad.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore

Stowaway by Karen Hesse

Nirvana in Fire (狼牙榜) - ok objectively it was fine. It was just SO long that I started losing patience at multiple points.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on (2021) dir. Dean Fleischer Camp

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

Suzume - anime movie

Fairies Albums (百妖谱) - donghua

Link Click （时光代理人���- donghua

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn by Tri Vuong - webcomic

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Journey to the West: Demons Strike Back (西游伏妖篇) - movie

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Others Writings by Jorge Luis Borges

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Frozen 2 - movie

Logan - movie

The Three Sisters of Tenmasou - movie

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Nothing new.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Nimona (2023) - movie

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blache

One Piece - the live action Netflix series

Good Omens season 2

Birdwing by Rafe Martin

Blue Eye Samurai - netflix cartoon

Haven't You Heard I'm Sakamoto - anime

System Collapse by Martha Wells

The Cay by Theodore Taylor (reread)

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Bottoms (2023) - movie

Daily Life of the Immortal King (仙王的日常生活) - donghua

Witch King by Martha Wells. Actually I enjoyed the Kai/Bashasa storyline a lot. The present-day storyline I found extremely boring. Which was unfortunate because it was more than half the book.

The King's Avatar (全职高手) - donghua

The Apothecary Diaries - anime

Assorted nonfiction

The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May. Bored. DNF

Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - dir. Dick Proenneke. Documentary of Proenneke's year spent living alone in the Alaskan wilderness. Neat look at one dude building a cabin, furniture, and all his accompanying household implements by hand.

A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia by Blaine Harden. The human and environmental significance of the Columbia dam system.

Gifted Earth: The Ethnobotany of the Quinault and Neighboring Tribes by Douglas Deur. Guide to key native species and their traditional uses.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders. Four classic Russian short stories with accompanying technical analysis of their narrative construction. Great look at the process of writing and analyzing stories.

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin - animal behavioral psychology

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin - more animal behavioral psychology

Crying in HMart by Michelle Zauner. DNF. Felt like the book could have been 1/4 of its length. Mostly nothing new.

Wood in American Life: 1776-2076 by WG Youngquist and HO Fleischer. Wood use in America. Really makes you realize just how many things are now made out of plastic but used to be wood. And how much more difficult and expensive it was to make and replace objects.

Authentic Diversity: How to change the workplace for good by Michelle Silverthorn. Concise and nicely concrete. Would be a good starting place for an executive.

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil - how some big data algorithms reinforce preexisting inequality, and how to improve them.

The Relationship Cure by Joan Declaire and John M. Gottman. The classic originator of the "bids for attention" approach. Pretty good, most helpful was the part where it identifies the styles of responses.

Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A Retirement and Aging Roadmap for Single and Childless Adults by Sara Zeff Geber

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

the excellent hyperlocal nature guidebook I bought after encountering the author at the mall

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. 2018 ed.

[ellieellieoxenfree]

52 weeks, 52 movies: may

more catchup. watched some great stuff this month and some real fucking garbage.

a radiant girl (france) — 19-year-old irène (rebecca marder), a jewish girl, dreams of being an actress in 1942 france, blissfuly unaware of the horrors breathing down her neck.

okay, i know what this movie is going for. i get it. i know what point they’re trying to make, juxtaposing irène’s carefree joys against the encroaching nazi regime. except the nazis barely even register in this movie (until the very end), and the vague hints that occasionally pop up throughout don’t really register. there are mentions of surrendering radios and bicycles, and a few of irène’s classmates disappear, but she’s so self-absorbed and shallow that none of these things register to her on any level. she comes off as less a head-in-the-sand dreamer and more of a willfully obtuse ignoramus.

nor is she a particularly interesting character, nor is her story particularly interesting. she wants to be an actress. she flirts with boys. she has a weird quasi-incest moment with her brother that gave me the actual creeps. it’s all very pedestrian and dull and i could only stomach so many scenes of her giggling with her friends about acting or hatching schemes to get the cute optometrist to notice her. (she concocts an entire plan to get glasses she doesn’t need to get his attention. it is dreadfully boring.) by the time we got to an admittedly chilling ending — her boisterous singing in a cafe catches the eye of a nazi soldier, who cruises over to her with shark-like focus, right before the screen goes black — i was long past the point of giving the remotest fuck about her. she’s as shallow as a puddle two days after rain. she’s unable to conceptualize of the world or people around her, so watching her got very, very tiresome very very quickly. at no point does she put deeper thought into the things that are happening around her. her jewish faith feels equally like an afterthought and barely shows up in the movie. the only thing that seems to matter is having her flit around like an empty-headed simpleton declaiming monologues in pursuance of her dream. even the classmates around her don’t register as people. irène’s entire world is irène and everyone exists to orbit her.

this was absolutely one i finished because it was for the challenge. i cannot recommend anyone do the same, regardless of the reason.

girl picture (finland) —three young women (aamu milonoff, eleonoora kauhanen, and linnea leino) navigate adolescent dreams and hardships over a handful of weekends.

oh, girl picture. oh, you. i wanted to like this more, and there were parts i liked. but the longer i sat with it the less settled about it i felt, and ultimately i concluded that it didn’t work for me. ultimately, it seemed unwilling to fully commit to following the story all the way through, so none of the storylines quite ever satisfied properly. they didn’t quite feel like i was voyeuristically dropping in and seeing a snapshot of a life, either; things artificially ended or resolved so abruptly that i felt a bit of whiplash.

for example, two protagonists, mimmi and emma, fall in love. there are tantalizing plot threads here with both characters; mimmi has clearly unresolved family issues, feeling out of place, replaced, and abandoned by her biological family, while emma is a figure skater struggling with the demands of competitive athleticism. their romance is so whirlwind as to be headache-inducing — this might be the fastest quasi-enemies-to-lovers speed run ever — but its ending is what truly sours it. mimmi, who wrestles with emotional honesty, becomes a relationship saboteur and throws the relationship in emma’s face, then grinds their affection into the dirt by ostentatiously going off with someone else at a party in front of her. they resolve this, but it’s less ‘resolving’ and more ‘emma is a doormat who just apparently takes her back and there’s no communication about it.’ it felt, quite frankly, rather unsettling and more than a little gross. i suppose a scene prior to their resolution, where mimmi tearfully calls her absent mother and has a bit of a cry with her, is meant to be shorthand for her growth, but it feels utterly inauthentic. we, as viewers, have no reason to believe in mimmi’s change of heart. emma just comes off as a weak-willed fool.

separately, their arcs could have been interesting. emma’s heart isn’t in skating; mimmi’s relationship issues clearly come from the parental abandonment she feels. but the film doesn’t dig into that in any meaningful way, or doesn’t dig enough, so it lacks a ton of the power it could have.

similarly, rönkkö, the third member of the trio, has intriguing notes to her characterization that both don’t add up and don’t bear fruit. she seeks sexual pleasure, which manifests as a series of ineptly fumbling encounters with teenage boys little more than moronic brutes, but the storyline doesn’t ever really seem to land in a satisfying way. i’ve read that she ultimately settles on asexuality, but everything is vaguely and hazily defined and the word never gets brought up. (it doesn’t necessarily need to be, although asexuality is still so underrepresented in media that the film’s unwillingness to commit to this story beat alongside the others gets more and more frustrating.)

the actors are capable, and some of the landscapes are simultaneously beautiful and hideous in their winter frigidity. but the longer i went on, the more i asked myself, what are you trying to say? and found the answer was nothing at all.

sapphire (uk) — when a young woman (yvonne buckingham) is found murdered, a number of secrets spill over and shake loose the casual racism and bigotry of the predominantly white community around her.

this was a tidy little treat of a movie from basil dearden, who, as criterion tells me, was known for his kitchen-sink realism. (two years after sapphire, he’d make britain’s first sympathetic film about homosexuality.) this packed a LOT into a short package — while i generally spoil a lot of the plot points in my movie reviews, i think this one’s worth discovering all the secrets on an actual viewing, other than to say that this tackled race relations head-on. it’s incredibly progressive and daring for 1959, covering a lot of topics that the american production code would have had a stroke over. most shockingly, the murdered woman isn’t demonized, despite what i will delicately term indiscreet behavior. it’s nice to see something from the 50s that’s more openly unvarnished; it’s not that the behaviors didn’t happen, but censorship shut down their mere mention in popular culture, so this is an incredibly interesting time capsule. obviously, there’s no shortage of more modern stories about scandals of the period, but this has the immediacy of current values and beliefs uncolored by future ways of thinking.

it was also particularly interesting to see depictions of black culture in 1950s london. i recently watched small axe, which was a modern take on many of those cultural landmarks and touchstones, so it was interesting to contrast what steve mcqueen was doing in his depictions versus what dearden did in his. (dearden was a white man, so did not have the intimate knowledge of the community, and some black critics have commented negatively on his depiction of race relations. as a white woman, i certainly am not qualified to speak over them, but i do applaud what dearden was doing within the context of the time period. for its era, it’s progressive. by modern standards, it may not be as progressive or speak to things as skillfully and thoughtfully as mcqueen could do in small axe, but for my money, it was still an incredibly bold feat of filmmaking. engrossing and highly recommended.

baby assassins (japan) — two high school girls (takaishi akari and izawa saori) who moonlight as assassins face personal crises when their bosses order them to share a living space.

i’m waffling about this one. (this was not intended originally to be a joke, but could be construed as one for other viewers of this movie.) the concept is great, as is the fight choreography (izawa saori, who is the most precious thing alive, is a former stuntwoman), and much of the cast works well together. on the other hand, it bears the hallmarks of an amateur director who isn’t quite sure of themselves or their vision or voice, so it doesn’t quite gel as well as it could have, and it tends to meander at points. when it’s on, it’s on; when it’s not, it’s just frustrating. as with many of the movies i’ve seen this year that didn’t quite live up to expectations, the bones are good. the bones are there and could be fashioned into something superlative. but it just doesn’t quite get there.

a lot of what i seem to keep criticizing is tone, and this suffers from some awkward tonal shifts that don’t always work. it veers from comedy to bloodthirstiness — there’s a gory scene where a yakuza member tortures a shopkeeper for a joke he doesn’t like, which seemed to belong in a darker movie — and the two things don’t always marry well. the movie is overall pretty gory at spots, with some setpieces of large-scale shootouts, but the torture scene feels deliberately cruel in much more grounded and realistic way than the over-the-top nature of the other fight scenes.

it’s also a bit thinly written at times, and i could have used some more beefing up to the script to better establish our characters, their jobs, and the world around them. due to the lack of connective tissue, it can get confusing regarding motivations and logistics, and another pass at the script to add in some connective tissue would have gone a long way.

but it is fun a lot of the time as well. the girls have an easy, natural chemistry, and director sagamoto yuko takes advantage of that to just showcase them in everyday situations — lounging around their apartment, eating together, lightly bickering. again, stronger/tighter writing would have done a lot to help give a better sense of who the girls are (chisato, played by takaishi, is the bubbly, giggly one, whereas mahiro (izawa) is the perpetually exhausted one who’s just done with a lot of this nonsense), but they do their best to carry the material anyway. given chances to shine, such as in a scene where they both need to get day jobs at a maid cafe, they perform admirably. in another scene, they argue over who’s responsible for finishing a job, while the bound and gagged hostage panics in the background. i really wanted the film to lean into the everyday absurdity in more scenes like this — again, a stronger director and writer could have coaxed out the inherent hilarity of the premise.

there is a sequel to baby assassins, which i unwisely picked up on a sale before watching the first one, but the longer i thought about it, the happier i was that i did. i don’t think the movie is a flop or unsalvageable, and i think that there’s enough potential in the material that sagamoto has the chance to learn and grow from his fumbles in the first one to make the second a stronger, leaner machine. we’ll see if i’m booboo the fool.

other viewing

polite society (uk)

willie dynamite (usa)

oh, god! (usa)

uhf* (usa)

borders of love (czech republic)

my fake boyfriend (canada)

the first wives club (usa)

street gang: how we got to sesame street (usa)

smarty (usa)

yomeddine (egypt)

chico and rita (spain)

words bubble up like soda pop (japan)

the girl can’t help it (usa)

the bride came COD (usa)

beans (canada)

born to win (usa)

the boy inside (japan)

the sum of us (australia)

the railway children (1970) (uk)

congrats my ex! (thailand)

leprechaun 5: leprechaun in the hood (usa)

love undercover (hong kong)

the bad guys (usa)

farha (jordan)

the kick (new zealand)

mahler (uk)

moonfleet (usa)

goodbye, mr loser! (china)

invasion of the body snatchers (1978) (usa)

the doctor and the girl (usa)

mangrove (uk)

challengers (usa)

working class (hong kong)

blondi (argentina)

the girl without hands (france)

in china they eat dogs (denmark)

my first summer (australia)

the secret of my success (usa)

men in white (1934) (usa)

lovers rock (uk)

just good friends s1 (uk)

kiss the blood off my hands (usa)

red white and blue (uk)

northern pursuit (usa)

guidance (canada)

[sharpened--edges]

[The] distinction between the legal code and the unwritten popular code is a commonplace at any time. But rarely have the two codes been more sharply distinguished from each other than in the second half of the 18th century. One may even see these years as ones in which the class war is fought out in terms of Tyburn, the hulks and the Bridewells on the one hand; and crime, riot, and mob action on the other. […] The commercial expansion, the enclosure movement, the early years of the Industrial Revolution—all took place within the shadow of the gallows. The white slaves left our shores for the American plantations and later for Van Diemen's Land, while Bristol and Liverpool were enriched with the profits of black slavery; and slave-owners from West Indian plantations grafted their wealth to ancient pedigrees at the marriage-market in Bath. It is not a pleasant picture. In the lower depths, police officers and gaolers grazed on the pastures of crime—blood-money, garnish money, and sales of alcohol to their victims. The system of graduated rewards for thief-takers incited them to magnify the offence of the accused. The poor lost their rights in the land and were tempted to crime by their poverty and by the inadequate measures of prevention; the small tradesman or master was tempted to forgery or illicit transactions by fear of the debtor's prison. Where no crime could be proved, the J.P.s had wide powers to consign the vagabond or sturdy rogue or unmarried mother to the Bridewell (or “House of Correction”)—those evil, disease-ridden places, managed by corrupt officers, whose conditions shocked John Howard more than the worst prisons. The greatest offence against property was to have none. The law was hated, but it was also despised. Only the most hardened criminal was held in as much popular odium as the informer who brought men to the gallows. And the resistance movement to the laws of the propertied took not only the form of individualistic criminal acts, but also that of piecemeal and sporadic insurrectionary actions where numbers gave some immunity. When Wyvill warned Major Cartwright of the “wild work” of the “lawless and furious rabble” he was not raising imaginary objections. The British people were noted throughout Europe for their turbulence, and the people of London astonished foreign visitors by their lack of deference. The 18th and early 19th century are punctuated by riot, occasioned by bread prices, turnpikes and tolls, excise, “rescue”, strikes, new machinery, enclosures, press-gangs and a score of other grievances. Direct action on particular grievances merges on one hand into the great political risings of the “mob”—the Wilkes agitation of the 1760s and 1770s, the Gordon Riots (1780), the mobbing of the King in the London streets (1795 and 1820), the Bristol Riots (1831) and the Birmingham Bull Ring riots (1839). On the other hand it merges with organised forms of sustained illegal action or quasi-insurrection-Luddism (1811–13), the East Anglian Riots (1816), the “Last Labourer's Revolt” (1830), the Rebecca Riots (1839 and 1842) and the Plug Riots (1842).

E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Vintage, 1966), pp. 60–2.