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Classics Club Spin #33 List
- An Anton Chekhov novel
- The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy Sayers
- A Toni Morrison novel
- Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
- Cymbelline
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Richard III
- The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
- The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
- Walden by Henry Thoreau
- An anthology of American poetry
- An anthology of British poetry
- Anthony Trollope novels
- George Eliot’s shorter works
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In Or Out Tag
I read Olivia’s answers here, and I thought this would be fun to do.
Reading the Last Page FirstOut. If I’m not feeling the book I will skim, but I will still skim in order.Enemies to LoversIn. If it’s not deadly enemies or petty enemies, but the true each a strong person with strong reasons and wit Benedict-Beatrice type.Dream SequencesOut. No. I hate dreams. I find them disturbing. Also it’s a deception/lazy writing issue in fiction.Love TrianglesOut. Overall. I think it technically CAN be done well (rarely, not sure I’ve seen the type when BOTH options are good, but I’ve seen it humorously done well like the Noel, Gay, and Roger triangle in Tangled Web).Cracked SpinesOut. Cracked spines in my experience mean pages falling out.Back to My Small TownIn. If done well. I can’t think of anything but Hallmark and the jokes right now which aren’t well-done but enjoyable.No Paragraph BreaksOut. Any visually or reading comprehension difficulty is out. I struggle enough to focus, I’m not reading anything that makes me feel crazy.Multi-generational SagasIn. If it’s done well. Something like the Anne books. The various Little House series.Monsters Are Regular PeopleOut. Absolutely not. I don’t like grey areas with evil and confusing morality. I don’t want things simplified, but I don’t want anything posing as amorality either.Re-ReadingIn. Absolutely, I need my comfort reads.Artificial IntelligenceOut. Not a huge sci-fi person, and I find AI extremely creepy.Drop CapsIn. Quintessential for fairytales.Happy EndingsIn. Pretty much a must.Plot Points That Only Converge at the EndIn. If done well. It has to be believable, not lazy-minded bad writing that is to neatly wrapped up or to fantastic to suspend disbelief.Detailed Magic SystemsIn. Love the details in Harry Potter.Classic Fantasy RacesIn. I prefer the Faerie races to Greco-Roman myth (which I’m rather sick of).Unreliable NarratorsOut. Occasionally I can handle it for a change, but I don’t love deception, especially as a major plot point. And confusing moral issues.Evil ProtagonistsOut. I don’t like confusing moral issues.The Chosen OneOut overall. I think it can sort of be done well, maybe. But as much as I love Harry and Harry Potter, it got REALLLYY annoying and extremely contrived.When the Protagonist DiesOut. Happy endings remember.Really Long ChaptersOut. It can work but my attentions span isn’t super.French FlapsOut. I don’t think I’ve come across this much, but I don’t like the sound of it, I don’t like to many paper layers and complication.Deckled EdgesOut. HATE this look/texture.Signed Copies by the AuthorIn. If it’s a favorite author. It’s not a huge deal though.Dog-Earing PagesIn for library books (yes, a crime, I need to work on this), Out if it’s my own book.Chapter Titles Instead of NumbersIn. I prefer both though. -
LM Montgomery Week Tag Answers
I’m linking up here at Hamlette’s Soliloquy for her LM Montgomery Week.
1. Who introduced you to L. M. Montgomery’s writing? Tell us the story!I think it was when friends of the family gave us some of the Anne books. Specifically, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne’s House of Dreams, and Rainbow Valley. I didn’t actually read Anne of Green Gables until several years later, I don’t believe, and Rilla of Ingleside much later after that (the forgettable Anne of Ingleside sometime in between I think). My original favorites were 2,3, and 7.2. What LMM books have you read?All eight Anne Books, the Emily trilogy, the Pat duology, the Story Girl duology, The Blue Castle, A Tangled Web, Magic for Marigold, Jane of Lantern Hill, The Road to Yesterday, Chronicles of Avonlea, and Further Chronicles of Avonlea, The Blythes Are Quoted, Kilmeny of the Orchard, Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories,3. What movies or shows based on her books have you watched?The 80’s movies. Not a fan. Green Gables Fables (season one, season two,unfortunately Storify has been shut down, because once I discovered that, that is how I experience the story. All the characters tweets, subtweets, photos, vlogs, etc. in Chronological order, and they were perfect!)4. Which LMM character is your kindred spirit, the one you’d like to hang out with in real life?I’m not sure, I’d just sort of like to fit in that world generally.5. Which LMM character do you relate to the most? And why?I don’t normally feel like I “relate” to characters. I’d love to be like Donna though, so I could have Peter. And honestly, her dull life of waiting and dreaming, does fit me. Also why I relate to Pat. A lot of the other heroines are ambitious, I’m not.6. Have you ever been to Prince Edward Island?No, but I REALLLY want to. Definitely a bucket list location.7. Who is your favorite LMM heroine?I like the main ones all really (though Pat and Emily especially need some sense knocked into them regarding their swain), that is why she is a favorite author. I have a hard time reading if I don’t like the heroine.8. Who is your favorite LMM hero?Peter and Barney.9. Do you have any fun merch related to her books? If so, please share some photos!My Anne and Diana pins (my instagram post) from A Story Seamstress Art.10. What are some of your favorite LMM quotations?The romantic and meaningful ones are nice and all but I live for the humorous scenes, and if they combine both as with Peter and Donna, perfection! However since by quote collection skills need work and Goodreads doesn’t do well on anything not famous or subtly humorous, I’m limited. Also, I’m brain dead, so I’ll leave you with this.“Roaring Abel crossed the kitchen at a bound, caught him by his collar and his trousers, and hurled him through the doorway and over the garden paling with as little apparent effort as he might have employed in whisking a troublesome kitten out of the way. “The next time you come back here,” he bellowed, “I’ll throw you through the window – and all the better if the window is shut! Coming here, thinking yourself God to put the world to rights!” Valancy candidly and unashamedly owned to herself that she had seen few more satisfying sights than Uncle James’ coat-tails flying out into the asparagus bed.”
― The Blue Castle -
Delete That by John Crist
Long time, no writing. I’ve had a LOT going on. And this sort of touches on some things I’ve been thinking about with regards to my story. And I will probably be delving into more of my background later this year although there is a bit of it in this review for context. Also note, I’m also putting this as my review on Goodreads. I’ve edited both because I thought I took my sarcasm too far.
Two instead of one because it was interesting, I didn’t ha it, and a great starting point for discussion.
I started this and I was interested, but I got really sick of a grown-a** man’s whining and excuse making. “Everyone is a lying hypocrite so it’s okay I’m a lying hypocrite, it’s not my fault I’m a lying hypocrite, etc.”
I am a woman raised in the church, we moved from a typical southern Baptist church to a reformed Baptist (hyper) Calvinistic church when I was 11, where as an immature 11-year-old, I realized that I wasn’t actually saved. I’ve lived in that world excluded, I was not one of the elect. In many parts of America particularly the Bible belt there are huge cultural, social, and familial benefits to being Christian. And depending on the situation, not being a Christian cannot merely mean no positives, but it can actually mean negatives, it did for me.
Some people want all that but they also want all the world has to offer. They want the best of both worlds and none of the consequences. They present as goody-goody, they are the behavioralists, the ones who parents compare the “bad” ones to. The ones who when caught often are excused by the inner circle and always unrepentant, they always have an excuse. Sometimes they stay and claim to be Christians, John Crist seems to be one of these on steroids although it seems that he wasn’t completely excused. Other times they “deconstruct” and blame the entire religion instead of admitting that they were frauds. To both, just take the “L” and own that you snned or that you aren’t a Christian, my stars!
These types of people have hurt the types of people like me, who are honestly not saved and sometimes as in my case (if a woman especially or maybe even only if a woman), expected to still behave like a Christian. I’m expected to have the worst of both worlds. I’m really not sympathetic to these types of people (plus I’m bitter, clearly). He was also in his twenties, thirties, etc. (I think he’s close to 40 now).
Crist is very equivocal in this book, not forthwright and honest. He points out hypocrisy, calling people out, but he uses it as an excuse too. “See everyone is a hypocrite, so it’s okay if I am.” Yeah, no, yours is no minor hypocrisy dude, and someone else’s wrong doesn’t make a right either.
Also, normal people sharing highlights and keeping you know, private things private, is not professing Christianity and living secretly in sin. Social media influencers curating a more cultivated brand authentic to them and being more private since they are public is also not lying and being the total opposite. Not everyone is a huge lying hypocrite about their entire lives.
He would imply he’s sleeping around with multiple women, no acknowledgement that he was in sin, no repentance know, still trying to act like he was sick, that he couldn’t control himself. He wasn’t merely sinning then, he isn’t acknowledging the gravity now, also this behavior is not merely blatant immorality for a Christian, it is incredibly dirtbag behavior for an unbeliever. But then then later he says, “Even though this was shaping up to be perhaps the first sex scandal in history where no one was having actual sex, I could tell it was going to be a sordid scene in Nashville for a while.” Um, what?
Elsewhere he talks of calling out and cancel culture (why is it okay for him to do it though?) and Christians calling each other out. He confuses (deliberately) petty squabbles over minor things of Christian liberty with grave doctrinal error/sin/heresy which call for Biblical rebuked and excommunication with petty squabbles of Christian conscience. If someone defies biblical doctrine and calls God a liar, they do need to be confronted.
At some point he talks about Jesus not being okay to Christians. Jesus not being “in” with the Pharisees so not comparable to Crist getting caught in sexual sin, with his posturing as a Christian and then turning out to be a white-washed tomb, that makes HIM the Pharisee.
And then as regards to mainstream culture/humanity as a whole and artists, criminal and flawed are not the same thing. Criminals deserve cancellation and prison. Aspects of #metoo were right, it started out right, exposing and taking down a criminal, then got watered down to include noncriminal acts and then further to slander. Crist seems to be classing all this into “flaws.”
On page 196 in Kindle version, he mentions visiting a prison and meeting a chill murderer and others, “Physically, these men were imprisoned, but mentally, they were free.” That is called sociopathy.
He kept mentioning feeling empty, left out, having a void. A genuine Christian would know God and his church are to fill that hole. He mentions mental illness, I can’t really tell how much of that is just innate or a consequence of his choices or put in there to be a smoke screen for obvious sinful choices, he seemed to function pretty normally in wild circumstances which in my personal experience I could not do in mild situations. Everyone is different, it just felt like it fell right in line with his long overt and implied excuse-making. Regardless a Christian starts with God, Bible, church, counseling and a doctor to deal with life. Any or all of those above booze and women, plenty of unbelievers do too.
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Goodreads Yearly Reading Summary
Here is my yearly reading summary. I love that Goodreads does this. Sometimes Kindle books get marked done before they are so it’s actually 43. In terms of numbers worst reading year in a decade. Not great in variety either, however I did read the weirdest book I’ve ever read (it’s the shortest one).
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What I Read the Last 7 Months of 2022
Rereads
My Man Jeeves; Carry On, Jeeves; Thank You, Jeeves; Right Ho, Jeeves; The Mating Season; Ring for Jeeves; Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit. Y’all know I think these are great.
New to Me Fiction
Anna Karenina. I was pleased with myself for reading this. I actually semi-enjoyed it. I was fed up with Levin’s philosophizing by the end. Those last 20 plus pages about killed me. I definitely prefer Tolstoy to Dostoevsky. I clearly didn’t get to War and Peace, but I’m hoping to this year.
Remembering and A World Lost Wendell Berry. I’m trying to read all Berry’s work. These weren’t my favs.
Quartet in Autumn, Excellent Women, Crampton Hodnet, No Fond Return of Love, Jane and Prudence, Civil to Strangers: And Other Writings by Barbara Pym. I searched “autumn” in the Libby app and that got my started on my Barbara Pym
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. Cute but rather to sad for me.
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti. Interesting but depressing.
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki. Eh.
Nonfiction
The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero. Absolutely fascinating, highly recommend. In following this unique man’s history, you get some Irish history, a tiny bit of Australian history, and some U.S. history.
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences by Sarah E. Hill. Here is my Goodreads review:
“I liked the information presented in chapters 1-8. I think all women (and men) could stand to learn how hormones affect our bodies and lives. However, like other commenters, her stance is way too deterministic and limited. We aren’t just our hormones. We aren’t just our bodies to me. Read it to better inform yourself with a grain of salt since 1) This hasn’t been studied enough and 2) She’s not in the medical field (which I somehow missed while reading) and while to dismiss her for that reason is a fallacy, she doesn’t have practical working knowledge of these fields, she’s working from studies which I don’t think is a strong position to have adequate knowledge to understand the studies and interpret their data well. However, since we are limited in our books on women’s health and anatomy and physiology from the medical [perspective], I still recommend the book for these chapters until we can get better options.
A few other notes. She seemed to rather idolize the pill which caused her to omit pertinent information such as the usage of birth control types and percentages, data which does exist. This leads to her to make grand generalizations and assumptions which get worse in the later chapters. These chapters I just skipped, she started in on a political, personal opinion/paradigm schtick riddled with fallacies and jumping to conclusions and ignoring sociological/demographical data.”
A few notes now. I was leery of the pill from what I’ve heard of other women’s stories combined with my mental health during puberty. I still almost started it, I got a prescription and then never took it even though I had a slight sense of being histrionic. Turns out, no, I wasn’t since I took supplemental melatonin (a hormone!) which triggered a mental health episode, so just be very careful if you’ve had any history of hormonal caused mental health issues, if you are going to use the pill make sure you have everything set up with your doctor and a psychiatrist in case it doesn’t go well.
Also, I’m quite a bit fed up with people and pop culture throwing around inaccurate information. These stats are important:
Usage of the major forms of birth control (14% is the pill)
Effectiveness of birth control methods (medical source!)
Aerobics Program For Total Well-Being: Exercise, Diet, And Emotional Balance by Kenneth H. Cooper. This is a very old book, so the full fatal dangers of smoking are missing. It’s also written for men, so I’m not sure what the points would be for women. If you fill that in mentally, or ignore the smoking parts it is great!!! I read this shortly after a sobering doctor’s visit in June. I also started running and working on my diet. Several things went into this, mainly the doctor’s visit, but I’m sure the book helped a little. I think I want my own copy.
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More Friends Quotes
I relooked up the last quote in my last post thinking I’d deleted it . . . I hadn’t, I had a whole other set of quotes in another place. So here are the rest.
“Ross, Ross, Ross, listen, who are you kissing at midnight, huh, Rachel or Phoebe?”
“What?!”
“Well, you gotta kiss someone, can’t kiss your sister,”
“Well, who’s going to kiss my sister?”
“Chandler.”
“Ah, man really?!”
“Dude, Dude, Who would you rather kiss your sister, me or Chandler?”
“That’s a good point.”~~~~~~~~~
Ross to Monica, “Chandler was totally flirting with the hot delivery girl.”
Chandler to Ross, “Thank you for that.” To Monica “I was not flirting.”
“It’s okay. I don’t care. It’s fine.”
Both Ross and Chandler, “Really?”
“It’s no big deal, I do it all the time.”
Chandler, “So, ah um, you you you flirt with guys all the time?”
“Sure, it doesn’t mean anything, just like I know it doesn’t mean anything with you.”
“Okay, but there’s a big difference, alright? You are a lot hotter than I am.”
Joey walking behind, “True story.”
“Gee, like, this actually bothers you?”
“Yes, it does bother me, and I think it bother a lot of people. Rachel, when, uh, when you were going out with Ross did it bother you when he flirted with other women?”
“Uh, no, no, it bothered me when he slept with other women.”
Ross, to Chandler, “And thank you for that.” -
What I Watched the Last Quarter
This is all I have written down. I may have missed some, and I intentionally didn’t try to list all the Hallmark movies. I also watched a lot of Youtube, especially in the November and December, mostly goofy stuff like KnJ and their group of friends videos. I just needed that level of absolute nonsense and fun.
October
Country at Heart. Hallmark, can’t remember at the moment
When Harry Met Sally. I actually think this one was kinda fun. But oh my stars the sexism/misogyny! I don’t identify as feminist for a variety of reasons because it’s a mess, and I don’t use those terms lightly. I think men and women are of equal worth not exactly the same (why would you want to be?!), but I also don’t think they fall into stupid, unscientific personality and taste categories/stereotypes. Any sentence that starts with or implies “all such and such are such and such” is usually an “if some then all” fallacy, and also just infuriating. And again, why does it feel like there is more accuracy/nuance/equality in the 30’s and 40’s movies and more sexism in the 50’s, 60’s, (and now in my experience), the 80’s movies and tv (I’ve not seen enough 70’s to get a feel)?!
“Why are you getting so upset, this is not about you,”
“Yes, it is; you are a human affront to all women and I am a woman.”
Amen.
Mystic Pizza. This caused me to think, yeah, most 80s movies are misses.
St. Elmo’s Fire. I take it back, this is so much better/accurate than now. Actually this was pretty silly and shallow, it was just fun, also I loved Kevin, so.Alec, “Leslie has to marry me soon.”
Kevin, “Why, you pregnant?”
Started rewatching Friends. Initial gut reaction I love Chandler and I really, really hate Ross (not always, but man, he is such a pig sometimes; I mean not comedically). Example Ross being “generous and a nice guy” (sick face),
“You know what, you know what, if things were the other way around there is nothing you could put on a list that could ever make me not what to be with you.”
“Well, then I guess that’s the “differences between us. See, I’d never make a list.”
Dude pines after and then does nothing, then gets into a relationship, then can’t decide. Can’t decide buddy boy?!!! That’s your decision right there, it ain’t me. Also while it was Chandler’s idea, he only came up with it because Ross couldn’t decide (again, ugh). Rachel is super annoying and an airhead the first season or two. But bimbo and jack*** are not in the same category, they don’t equal each other out. Anyhoo, for some funny quotes.
~~~~~~~~~
“I don’t know what I know what I’m gonna do. What am I gonna do? I mean this this is like a complete nightmare!”
“Oh, I know this must be so hard. ‘Oh, no! Two women love me! They’re both gorgeous and sexy, my wallet’s too small for my 50’s and my diamond shoes are too tight!'”
His cadence and build up though, I’m crying.
~~~~~~~~~
“Ding dong the pyscho’s gone.”
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Monica, “We’re not having birthday cake, we’re having birthday flan.”
Chandler “Excuse me?”
Monica, “It’s a traditional Mexican custard dessert.”
Joey, “Oh, that’s nice. ‘Happy birthday, Rachel, here’s some GOO.'”
~~~~~~~~~
Rachel’s extravagant barbie bridesmaid dress.
“I think you should seriously consider the marriage thing, give Rachel another chance to dress up like princess bubble yum.”
Later, Ross and Rachel come in,
“I’m sorry, we don’t have your sheep.”
~~~~~~~~~
“Hey guys does this look like something the girlfriend of a paleontologist would wear?”
“I don’t know, you might be the first one.”
~~~~~~~~~
“I knew it, I knew it, I always knew she liked him. You know. She’d say no, but here we are, right, we just broke up, first thing she does.”
“You didn’t just break up.”
“Hey it’s been like three weeks.”
“You slept with someone three hours after you thought you broke up, I mean bullets have left guns slower.”
~~~~~~~~~
Monica, “Man, I would be great in a war, I really, I think I would make a fantastic military leader. I mean I know would make general before any of you guys.”
Chandler, “Before or after you were shot by your own troops?”
Ross, “I know where Joey would be, he would be down in the foxhole protecting all of us.”
Chandler, “Yes, if the foxhole was lined with sandwiches.”
~~~~~~~~~
November
See How They Run. Cute, but a bit blah. Except when she thinks it’s him and knocks him out with a shovel. That was great.
December
Hallmark aplenty, standouts were: Three Wisemen and a Baby (I’ve been a Tyler Hynes girl since It’s, Christmas Eve, before he was cool y’all, lol), Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas (Tyler Hynes again!), A Holiday Spectacular (which starred Derek Klena), and A Fabled Holiday (which briefly featured Lindsey Sterling and her gorgeous Celtic influenced rendition of Joy to the World).
American Underdog. Interesting, a bit cheesy. And less dramatic than I thought since they aged the characters 20-10 years (events took place over a bit under 10). It is way more dramatic (impossible?) for a guy in his 30’s to get into the NFL for the first time than for a guy in his twenties which was the real case.
Remember the Titans. My experience was a bit hampered by 1) (especially by) The fact that I mashed what I knew of this movie with what I knew of We Are Marshall. When they don’t all die at the end as expected, that does ruin the pathos one expected. 2) I think it’s overhyped. 3) It’s Disney and it shows, very much glossed over stuff and changed things for dramatic effect. 4) Which leads to being me, I had to look up the actual facts . . . many of the points of major significance were mostly false or changed enough to increase the impact.
I watched two football movies yet, I’m remarkably ignorant of the rules, player positions, etc. of American football. Quite a feat for a big sports family and for someone who has actually played backyard football. I really feel like I should remedy that.
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Classics Club Spin #32
Post is here.
- The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
- An Anton Chekhov novel
- Another of Sigrid Undset’s works
- Beowulf (Tolkien’s translation) WINTER
- Cymbelline
- George Eliot’s shorter works
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Pamela by Samuel Richardson
- Persian Book of Kings
- The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
- The Scarlet Letter and/or The House with Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne
- War and Peace
- The Idiot
- Macbeth
- King John
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Life Lately
I did a birthday hike with my mom at the beginning of September (pics on my Instagram here). The rain gave us a lovely fog over the river (the photos don’t do it justice). And it also gave me a lovely wipeout. So we stopped at Target for an outfit before heading out to eat. And then I had my first facial with dermaplaning and an eyebrow wax. Highly recommend!
And that was the highlight, lol. My web development course rather took it out of me. And I didn’t study extra like I needed, so this semester looked glum. Then I decided to be stupid and get on dating apps. And then did some other “research” on my looks and such involved with that. All of which served to make me crazy (and tended to get the “men are pigs” sentiment going quite nicely). Then as I was winding that catastrophic experiment down, I got covid (the week of our huge company walking challenge, which would have normally put me right in 4th or 5th place!). I got enough better according to the current policies to do training (downtown) most of this past week and half of next. All the while trying to get a seasonal weekend job.
I’ve been exhausted, but I’m mostly relaxing this Sunday, and trying to plan for a fun fall. I want to enjoy my favorite season!
I’m looking to see if I can get a spot in the next semester for web dev and spend this semester studying. I’ve got a part-time weekend job that should start this month. I’m almost done with training, which should give me about 2 hours a day back and make it easier to pick my exercising back up. I’ve got my race with my mom at the middle/end of this month (with hopefully a bit of exploring after), and then the last week I’ve got a staycation (hallelujah!). I think I’ll try and start that off with another facial!
I’m hoping I can get some fall decor and goodies next paycheck since, you know, it’s actually still fall! Hopefully it isn’t sold out since every season and holiday starts about two months earlier lately!!!!!
My mom dropped off apples, apple cider, and an apple cider doughnut this week, and my sister and I had our seemingly annual fall get-together with some childhood friends complete with plenty of pumpkin treats. I also managed to snag a couple jars of pumpkin (I still had plenty of molasses, it took me so long to find last year I made sure to grab several, but I think I might still grab some more this year). I’m also thinking of the cozy savory fall foods to have like saurkraut, potatoes, and sausages, yum!
I’m going to plan some more stuff for fall today, so to sign off, a video from the Autumnal expert herself.
Here’s to Autumn and all things Autumnal!!!!!!!
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What I Watched August and September
I didn’t do a great job at tracking everything, so I may have missed a few things, I feel like I watched 10 Things I Hate About You somewhere in these months.
August
Stagecoach
McLintock!September
The Makeover (Hallmark)
“If I belonged to a younger generation, I would say,’Dang, he is fine!'” “Might I remind you that is the exact generation we are trying to rescue from such phrases?”
The Terminal List. Um yeah, skipped a lot, probably should have stopped it early on. Beyond morally questionable. Went from understandable targeted vigilantism (but with unjustifiable methods, aka torture!) to “sucks if you are in my way.”
The Expanse. Dad has been obsessed with this show since it’s been on Amazon, and so after the above show, I opted to try it. Less overtly, over the top violence, but still I can’t deal with that “amoral” and actually immoral, zero sum, dehumanizing choices and viewpoints. I didn’t pursue past the first episode or so of season two (wasn’t interested in the new people either). I was burned out with moral ambivalence (to put it generously) and violence.
Cranford and Return to Cranford (a family friend/dad said there is also, “Sick of Cranford”). I got Britbox again, and after stupidly trying some violent shows (Rachel, do you ever learn?). I finally settled on fairly relaxing. I’d had these on my list for forever (aka, mainly because of Tom Hiddleston, hello). Wow, there is a lot of death though, but when I honestly thought about it, in the real time period, there actually probably was more! The last season felt really rushed.
What If. I’d seen this on a post of Olivia’s and added a few from her list to my TBR. But sometimes those just sit there. I was searching for funny or something on Amazon Prime, and this popped up. And wow, this is a new comfort rom-com (up there with Leap Year, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You). My sisters make fun of me for rewatching my favorites very close together, but I seriously might just turn around and watch this again. Super cute and funny and minimal of the stupid miscommunication drama (and when it happens, real grown-up apologies from both parties). Just happiness and comfort. Also, side note, I might actually get a tattoo, I didn’t realize/hadn’t seen, actually feminine ones before. We’ll see. Who is this woman talking?!!!
More Boy Meets World. I needed some funny, comfort, so I tried to pick up about where I left off in the Spring.
“Feeny with an earring.”
. . .
“Shawn, he’s on to us, he singled us out on the first day.”
“No, Cory, he singled you out on the first day, you singled me out.”~~~~~
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TTT August 30: Required Readings That Inspired My Love of Books
I decided I needed to get back into doing these! Link here.
My mom started our homeschooling with 5 in a Row, which I believe is based on the Charlotte Mason method. In middle and high school some of our history was the Beautiful Feet curriculum which is also I believe based on the Charlotte Mason method. So we had a rich experience with good books starting with wonderful illustrated classics. Either these books were part of the school program (either read to us or assigned to us) or they came from learning about the author from a different book we were assigned. I’ve included some of the stand-outs in the kids (so many other great ones though).
- Miss Rumphius
- Lentil
- Blueberries for Sal
- A New Coat for Anna
- Calico Bush
- Mara, Daughter of the Nile
- The Eagle of the Ninth (first Sutcliff, feel in love with these novels and Roman Britain)
- Warrior Scarlet (first books I remember crying over, granted I think I was already emotional at the time but still)
- Black Ships Before Troy (Sutcliff’s writing with Alan Lee’s Illustration, y’all!)
- The Wanderings of Odysseus (same as above)
