Daily routines I'm trying to develop

• drinking green tea every morning from a cute mug, using my adorable little lavender kettle to heat up the water for the aesthetic
• ripping off yesterday's sheet in my book-themed one-a-day calendar
• getting dressed instead of staying in my pajamas all day
• checking my Outlook inbox and dealing with emails instead of letting them pile up (I am absolutely letting my Gmail emails pile up)
• sitting at my desk to work from home
• eating salad for lunch/dinner 
• doing something creative, whether it's making a friendship bracelet, rearranging furniture, or reading a book
• lighting a candle in the evening
• doing my nighttime skincare routine
• journaling (ideally long-form but at least in my 5 year, 1 line a day journal)
• moisturizing my feet and using pillow spray before bed

Rest of March books

So the whole coronavirus thing happened, and I learned that I only blog regularly to procrastinate at work. I also have not been reading more, despite having all this time at home. I did rearrange my square cube bookcase though. It's now between my living and office spaces, and it's perfect as a divider because I have my rainbow books on one side, and my DVDs and CDs and other things on the other side that faces my office.

I purchased and read Daniel Lavery's memoir Something That May Shock and Discredit You in the same week (!!!), which never happens (I won and used an Amazon giftcard). I've loved Lavery's writing ever since the old The Toast days, and will read everything he writes. I loved all the Bible references which he used as descriptive parallels to his transitioning (Jacob wrestling with God and being given a new name, etc.). He also did several of his signature retellings/reimaginings of classical poetry and literature. This book was funny and poignant and I liked it very much. 4 out of 5 stars.
       Trigger warnings for this book: dysphoria, transphobia, Bible passages, depression and anxiety, I don't remember if he mentions his dad enabling a pedophile but if he does that's definitely one


I decided to get over my reading slump by reading an easy children's book, Oddfellow's Orphanage by Emily Winfield Martin (who also illustrated it). It's an early chapter book about a little albino girl who comes to an orphanage, and all the other children and staff that she comes to know there. It's a very gentle, retro and fantasy flavored story, with hints of sadness as of course the children are all orphans. I followed Winfield Martin's art blog, The Black Apple, for years, and I remember the individual portraits of the characters from years ago. She did all the portraits, then came up with a story to tie them all together. These portraits, along with a short biography, are at the beginning of each chapter. I don't actually know her, but I'm very proud of her for becoming a children's book writer and illustrator. I hope she writes more Oddfellow's Orphanage books, as I loved living in the world of the book. Highly recommended for children who can handle a bit of sadness in a book (some of the orphans' families were murdered, and the character bios say so in a non-descriptive but straightforward way). 4.5 out of 5 stars.
       Trigger warnings for this book: murder mentions, death mentions, grief, a character has a brief aggressive episode where he cuts off a girl's braid without her consent

Elders of the Internet

Love it! Nick Offerman is the best.

Sanditon miniseries, and books I've reread lately

I finished watching PBS's Sanditon miniseries, which is based on an unfinished novel that Jane Austen was writing when she died. It was pretty good, but I felt it was too soap opera-y. You already know that I don't like it when people insert random stuff into Jane Austen adaptations, especially if it's only for the drama. There are trysts! Kidnappings! A page is taken out of Cruel Intentions' book! There's a love triangle between two hot dudes and the heroine! There's a love triangle between the hero and two ladies who love him! There's at least one manipulative bitch who isn't afraid to use sex as a weapon! You know, a lot of stuff that does not belong in a Jane Austen adaptation (unless she already wrote it in there).
Also, I didn't like it that the hero walked around in stubble all the time, and that the heroine almost always wore her hair down despite being of Out age. They also did not wear hats and gloves in public/outside nearly enough. I also feel that there was too much obvious makeup on the women (I'm pretty sure ladies did not wear smoky eye makeup with crimson lips in the Regency era). I hate it when historical period pieces aren't accurate.
The heroine felt like a cross between Catherine from Northanger Abbey and Lizzie from Pride & Prejudice. The hero was definitely a Darcy type. The bitchy old rich lady was basically the same as she was in the book. One thrills to think of the frenemy relationship she would have with Lady Catherine de Bourgh. They really fleshed out the sole character of color, a young lady from the West Indies who is an heiress in the miniseries. I liked her and felt bad for her to be stuck in a town full of just white people who were often racist to her. The trips to London showed how diverse it was back then, which was nice and interesting. The ending was very abrupt and unsatisfying, which I thought was because maybe they ended the miniseries where Austen's novel did, but no! They fleshed it way out more than the novel, and just chose to end it that way! WTF. Despite all that, it was pretty good.

So obviously after I finished Sanditon, I decided to reread the book to see how similar the miniseries was to it. The answer is: not very. It was all right. It usually takes me a while to get into nineteenth century writing nowadays, thanks to the Internet and social media, and by the time I was hitting my stride, it was over. Anyway, my volume of Sanditon also has The Watsons and Lady Susan, and I decided to reread Lady Susan because I remember finding it so funny and scandalous. It... was fine. It did make me watch Love & Friendship, its adaptation that stars Kate Beckinsale, who is perfect, if a bit tamer than Lady Susan in her letters to her best friend. So random how they made her best friend American just because Chloe Sevegny (sp?) wanted it be in the movie for some reason. Anyway.

I organized more of my books, consolidating several piles into one megapile next to the stairs. This action of course revealed several books that I need to read and decide whether to keep or not.  I  reread Franny and Zooey for this reason. I wrote about it last time I read it, and I really liked it at the time. This time it was mostly just okay. I still liked the Jesus/religious stuff, but I guess there's something about reading a book where young people in their early to mid twenties have quarter-life crises when you yourself are in your thirties, that lowers the appreciation for the book. I last read it 9 years ago, when I was in my early twenties, so it makes sense that I liked it more then. Anyway. I'll be giving this one away.

Book review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I think most people have heard of this book, as it is a classic. Zora Neale Hurston was one of the Harlem Renaissance artists. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a long time, because I knew it would be sad. I think I originally got it from a thrift store.

Amazon summary:
One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

I was right, of course; this book is sad. Any book about any slice of the African American experience, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is going to be sad. Janie's family stories and first two marriages are very sad. But the writing! The writing is just lovely. This book has sentences like pearls. Even in describing things that may seem mundane, Hurston give them a glow. I could quote you like half the book, but I won't. Here are a few single lines from several different parts of the book.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer. 

Somebody near about making summertime out of lonesomeness.

He drifted off to sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.

Anyway, a lot of sad, bad stuff happens to Janie, but she is able to retain her sense of self and what she wants out of life. And she gets the soul-affirming relationship she deserves. I really like books that deal with the interior lives of women and what they think, feel, and want. I highly recommend this book for teens and up. Halle Berry played Janie in the movie adaptation, and that sounds like a good choice. 

Cover notes: My cover, above, is fine, although not accurate as to Janie's skin tone (she is at least a quarter white and is described as being light-skinned). I like most of the other options better. My least favorite options are the ones where Janie's turning into a tree, and this one, because it looks too much like a fun middle-grade novel which it decidedly is not. 

 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: February 19
From: thrift store?
Format: paperback
Status: giving away

Trigger warnings I'd apply to this book: rape mentions, period-typical racism, domestic violence, domestic abuse, period-typical and constant N-word usage, controlling relationships, a narrative about being enslaved and escaping slavery,  a minor is made to marry an older adult, period-typical sexism, period-typical misogynoir, physical violence, internalized racism, verbal abuse, colorism/shadeism, guns, a character dies by shooting, death, disease (especially rabies), descriptions of dead bodies, natural disasters/floods, period-typical racism towards Native Americans, alcohol mentions, tobacco use, animal deaths, gambling mentions, elder abuse of very minor character

Book review: The Spider's Web by Peter Tremayne

I think this is my third or fourth Sister Fidelma mystery. Like at least 1 of the others, I borrowed it from the Library. Like Girl Mans Up, I borrowed it from a heap of donated books.

Amazon summary:

In the spring of 666 A.D., Sister Fidelma is summoned to the small Irish village of Araglin. An advocate of the Brehon law courts as well as a religieuse, she is to investigate the murder of the local chieftain. While traveling there with her friend Brother Eadulf, a band of brigands attacks the roadside hostel in which they are staying and attempts to burn them out. While Fidelman and Eadulf manage to beat back their attackers, this incident is only the first in a series that troubles them. When they arrive at Araglin, they find out that the chieftain was murdered in the middle of the night, and next to his body, a local deaf-mute man was found holding the bloody knife that killed him.

While everyone else seems convinced that the man's guilt is obvious, sister Fidelma is not so sure. As she investigates, she's convinced that there is something happening in the seemingly quiet town--something that everyone is trying very hard to keep from her. In what may be the most challenging and confusing situation that she has yet faced, Fidelma must somehow uncover the truth behind the chieftain's murderer and find out what is really going on beneath the quiet surface of this rural town.

According to Amazon this is the fifth Sister Fidelma mystery, and the events from the third? book are referenced a few times. There were lots of twists and turns in this book, and they happened fairly regularly. This was a pretty good read, although I figured out the villain like halfway through the book. I'm not sure whether Peter Tremayne thinks his audience is too dumb to pierce the clues he's flung at us together, or if he does that on purpose so we feel smart. Remember when he gave the villain away in the first? book I read, by referencing Sappho poems? LMAO. Anyway, there's always a few pieces of the puzzle that are added at the end, so at least part of it is a surprise. The medieval Irish law stuff is always fascinating, and it's sick when Fidelma drops obscure knowledge on people's heads to put them in their place. I think in some parts, their law was better than modern American law.

I think this is the second SF book where Fidelma has to defend a person with disabilities who was planted with the murder weapon and is accused of killing the victims, and the community wants to kill them as a mob. The person turned out to be super smart and sensitive, once Fidelma took the time to actually talk to him, just like in that book with the nunnery murders. It's really hammered into our heads how bad it is to be mean to people with disabilities, and I was glad to learn that they were afforded some measure of protection from medieval Irish law. However, having the person in question always be super smart despite their disabilities kind of cheapens Fidelma's compassion and wokeness, because it makes it seem like people with disabilities have to be exceptional *despite* their disabilities to be worthwhile. Some people with disabilities are not intelligent, and that is okay!  It's concerning to me that is is a pattern in the SF books. I read a really good thread of harmful "disabled people" tropes from a Twitter user who has disabilities, and this falls right into that (specifically, the "only a nice special abled person can see/understand the disabled person" trope). I did find the communicating through tapping the Ogham alphabet into one another's hands thing very interesting. It's kind of messed up that his caretaker didn't take the time to let others know that he was intelligent and could communicate, and the means of communication. She just let everybody think he was an animal.

Anyway, this book was fairly enjoyable, although there was way too much about how gorgeous Sister Fidelma was, as usual. I'm also not crazy about how the villains are always ugly and/or stupid and/or womanish (if a man) or mannish (if a woman).

Trigger warnings I'd apply to this book: murder, gore, blood, incest, rape, sexual abuse, ableism, death, lynching mentions, poisoning, corrupt and hateful religious leader, twisting of Scriptures, fire, whorephobia (prejudice against sex worker)

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: February 6
From: Library donated books
Format: paperback
Status: returned

Book review: The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

You already know why I bought this one. I have a type. Barnes & Noble, this time, as it was on sale for only $7 or so.

Amazon summary:
In 1959 Florence Green, a kindhearted widow with a small inheritance, risks everything to open a bookshop — the only bookshop — in the seaside town of Hardborough. By making a success of a business so impractical, she invites the hostility of the town's less prosperous shopkeepers. By daring to enlarge her neighbors’ lives, she crosses Mrs. Gamart, the local arts doyenne. Florence’s warehouse leaks, her cellar seeps, and the shop is apparently haunted. Only too late does she begin to suspect the truth: a town that lacks a bookshop isn’t always a town that wants one.

This book is really more of a novella; approximately one third of the volume is taken up by an introduction and an essay, for some reason. Anyway, this book was a typical twentieth century English story, with writing to match. That type of writing is comforting to me, because I read a lot of British literature growing up. I liked the slice of life in a coastal rural English town, although I lost track of the characters pretty quickly. Other than that, though, I really disliked this book.

For some reason, the Regina George of the town decides to ask Florence to give up the abandoned, haunted house she's chosen for her bookshop after she already paid for it, and of course Florence says no. We are told repeatedly that this is the kind of small town where everybody knows everybody else's business pretty much immediately, so that woman must have known what Florence was doing before she did it, and she could have asked Florence before the latter put down a down payment. Anyway, this house was laying vacant for like 15 years, which means that at literally any time during this period, this lady could have decided to renovate it and turn it into the fine arts society establishment she wanted. But no, she decided to act like the bratty bully who ignores a toy until another child starts playing with it, and then of course it becomes the only toy that will do, and they do everything possible to snatch that toy away from the other child. 

This bitch invites Florence to her house party before asking her to give up the abandoned house, in hopes that that will make Florence feel obligated to say yes; reports the young girl who works in the bookshop to whatever England's version of Child Protective Services was at the time; sends official uniformed men to the bookshop to try to scare Florence out of it through "official" business-y means; and finally gets her nephew elected to a government position, where "he" passes a law that enables the bookshop to be seized by the government on all sorts of shady legal grounds. In fact, the heinous bitch has her nephew include caveats or whatever that Florence OWES the government money for taking her bookshop away, so she has to sell all her books and probably possessions to pay them!!!! Florence's sole supporter, an elderly rich eccentric, dies after having a private conversation with the bitch where he tells her to leave Florence alone, so of course the bitch tells everybody that he came to her house to tell her he supported her doing away with the bookstore.

 Florence leaves the town, and the last sentence is basically about her crying on the train because the town didn't want the bookstore. But that isn't true! The bookstore was well-used and often visited. It was just that heinous bitch with all that political power that influenced people to kick her out. This better not be based on a true story, or else I'll have to go to hell when I'm dead so I can kick that bitch's ass.

trigger warnings for this book: alcohol mentions, ghost/haunted building, incredible injustice

Score: 3 out of 5 stars
Read in: January 22-3
From: Barnes & Noble
Format: paperback
Status: giving away or selling

Book review: Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

As I walked to the back door of the library to leave for the night, my eye was caught by the spine of a red hardcover book poking out of some bags of donated books. GIRL MANS UP, the title read. Something pinged vaguely in the back of my mind. Have I heard about this book before? The title sounds familiar. I read the inside flap of the dust jacket, and decided I must have heard about this book from book blogs or bookstagram. I like to keep an ear out for LGBTQ+ books in order to make up for all the straight romances I read growing up. My mind made up, I pulled the book out of the bag and slipped it into my backpack. I'd read it that night and return it in the morning, no one the wiser.

Amazon summary:

All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty.

But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth—that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.

I read this book in 1 sitting, as it was a fairly easy and interesting read. Pen is Portuguese and clashes with her traditional immigrant parents all the time. I was angry at their heteronormative and sexist ideas and demands, and their being so controlling. They would not let Pen explain herself and demanded total and unquestioning obedience. Pen's only champion at home is her big brother, whom she looks up to. On the other side, Pen is friends with popular Colby, who uses her to get girls for him, which he then uses and loses. Pen's growing friendship with one of those girls, who ends up in a worst-case scenario because of Colby, threatens him, and it ultimately turns out that Colby feels he has just as much ownership and jurisdiction over Pen as her parents feel they do. Throw in having to deal with homophobia and falling in love with a girl for the first time, and you have lots of issues to deal with.

I enjoyed this book, although of course it made me angry and sad. I was glad that Pen learned how to choose female and male friends that actually cared about her, instead of only being "friends" with douche-y guys who constantly mocked her and made her feel like she had to earn her place in their group. The romance was very sweet, and the whole first love/butterflies in the stomach type stuff was well written. It was also really valuable to have an insight into what it's like to be gender nonconforming, as Pen is a butch lesbian. Despite being a stereotype that gets bandied about, butch voices aren't heard as much, especially in YA. 

Overall, I would recommend this book for teens and up. I don't love the idea of my teen cousins reading about drug use and mentions of sex and fooling around, but ultimately that is already the reality for a lot of teens, or at least their classmates. They can probably handle it ok. 

trigger warnings for this book: nonconsensual semi?-sexual occurances, drug use, sexual harassment, underage sex, abortion, homophobia, transphobia, religious homophobia, sexism, heteronormativity, controlling parents, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical violence, gender issues, dysphoria, blood, vomiting mentions

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: January 21
From: library/borrowed
Format: hardcover
Status: returned