Murderbot May

I reread all of The Murderbot Diaries (TMBD) series by Martha Wells in order to prepare for the newest book, Platform Decay, coming out on May 5. I read them all last year and have been obsessed with them ever since. I made a "Michelle's guide to the Murderbot Diaries" Canva carousel and posted it on my bookstagram in lieu of a May wrap-up, as the only books I read that month were TMBD series. You can see it here. I am tempted to post all the slides here in this blog entry, or replicate the information on the slides, but I'll hold off. The IG post has general information about the series, such as genres, themes, and reading orders (for which I relied heavily on Book Series in Order but also made my own suggested reading order list). The last slide is my Murderbot moodboard; you can see the Pinterest board here. 

You can read my general summary for the series in my TMBD guide slides. Here are my flash summaries of each book; flash reviews would be useless because they'd all be "I love this book and Murderbot" etc. I've given each book 4 stars. No chili peppers as there's no spice, although some references to sex are made. 

BOOKS

The books are Murderbot's personal logs and are in first person POV. 

All Systems Red (TMBD #1) - We meet Murderbot, a SecUnit (security construct that is part human, part robot, completely sentient) that hacked its 'governor module' so that it is no longer forced to follow orders and is free! ...to continue pretending to be a regular governed SecUnit, since it can't figure out how to escape or what to do with its life. At least it can watch as much television as it wants. Murderbot is on a planet guarding an environmental survey group called PresAux, who are all nice to Murderbot (very weird, after having been treated like property for so long), when suddenly they're all thrown into danger... 

Artificial Condition (TMBD #2) - Murderbot is on its own for the first time and on a mission to find out the truth behind a tragedy it was in... or behind. To get to the planet where it happened, Murderbot hitches a ride on an unmanned cargo ship, whose bot pilot turns out to be very different than it expected. With guidance from its new friend ART, Murderbot takes a job protecting some humans while they attempt to get some stolen work back from their ruthless ex-boss on that planet. Can Murderbot pass as an augmented human, keep its clients safe, and find out the truth?

 

Rogue Protocol (TMBD #3) - Its own fact-finding mission over, Murderbot decides to travel to an abandoned mining station to find out what GrayCris, the company behind the murders in All Systems Red, was doing there, hoping that that information can help its PresAux humans. It gets roped into helping a different survey team there, which consists of more humans (some nice, some with unknown intentions) and a human-form "pet" bot that might be able to see through Murderbot's "human security consultant" cover story. 

 

Exit Strategy (TMBD #4) - Murderbot learns that Dr. Mensah, the PresAux leader and its favorite human, has been kidnapped by GrayCris. It travels to the planet where she's being held prisoner and reunites with some of the other PresAux humans in order to help free Dr. Mensah and get them all off that planet safely. 

 

Network Effect (TMBD #5) - Murderbot is helping its PresAux humans on a mission when a big transport vessel shows up out of nowhere and kidnaps Murderbot and Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena. The people on the ship don't seem quite human and have strange, unhackable tech, while the ship seems really familiar... Can Murderbot keep Amena safe and figure out how to help ART and its crew?

 

Fugitive Telemetry (TMBD #6) - This book takes place before book 5, on Preservation station (the space station above Preservation, the planet the PresAux humans are from). There's been a murder, and detective Murderbot is on the case! This means having to work with Station Security, who suspect it of the murder and limit its technological access, and having to talk to humans and bots (ugh). Can Murderbot solve the case? Will the Station Security humans finally trust it?

System Collapse (TMBD #7) - This book takes place right after Network Effect, on the same planet where everything goes down in book 5. Murderbot, ART's crew, and the PresAux humans are trying to help the planet's human colony, as a corporation called Barish-Estranza is trying to use their ignorance of capitalism to trick the humans into entering corporate slavery. Murderbot is also dealing with PTSD after the events of book 5. Can Murderbot, ART, and their humans figure out how to save the colonists from corporate slavery, and themselves from Barish-Estranza's retaliation?

Platform Decay (TMBD #8) - Murderbot must rescue and lead 3 kidnapped members of Dr. Mensah's family through a huge Corporation Rim space station to safety. The mission is made even more complicated by the addition of another kidnapped family to protect and wrangle. Murderbot must keep its humans safe while navigating the huge space station ring, all of the various corporations that own parts of it, the lack of consistent  transport, air pirates, corporate warfare, and clingy children. All while posing as an augmented human, of course.

    This is the only one I'm bothering to do a review for as it's new. I really enjoyed this book, while also not enjoying it because it was so suspenseful the whole time. Even so, I read it twice, basically back to back. This is similar to Network Effect in that Murderbot is entrusted with Mensah's family members who don't even like it but it has to keep them safe. Farai is nice but struggling to understand SecUnit and her wife's bond with it, and Naja (her grandmother, I think) is one of my favorite things in the world, a badass old lady. The third family member is Mensah and Farai's daughter Sofi, whose age isn't given (Murderbot refers to all children and teens as juveniles), but I think she's a tween, somewhere between 9 and 14 years old. Murderbot's growth is really shown in this book; it's actually installed a mental health program (!) and does frequent emotion checks (!!), and its main reason to avoid giving its humans a gun is because it's afraid shooting people will give them trauma! What a change from its previous reason for withholding guns from humans (because it was afraid of being shot by them)! It's also making a real effort to incapacitate instead of kill. I'm so proud of Murderbot :')  ★★★★

 

Martha Wells said in an interview that she's on contract to write one more book, which may be the last one in the series 😭

SHORT STORIES

"Compulsory" - published on Wired.com - This is a TMBD prequel that takes place before book 1. Newly rogue Murderbot decides to disobey its orders and save a human worker.

 

"Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" - This short story takes place on Preservation after Exit Strategy and is told from Dr. Mensah's point of view. Mensah is struggling with PTSD after having been kidnapped, and takes comfort in knowing Murderbot is there for her and will protect her.

 

"Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" - This short story takes place after Artificial Condition (book 2), but we don't meet most of the characters until book 5. It's told from Iris (ART's "sister" and favorite human)'s point of view. ART's crew is on a mission on a planet undergoing a hostile corporate takeover. Iris notices ART is acting unusually, moping like it misses someone...

 

"Obsolescence" - published in an anthology called Take Us to a Better Place (free on most ebook platforms) - I kind of hesitate to add this one, as none of TMBD characters are in this, but it does take place in TMBD universe, only way earlier (still hundreds of years in the future for us). In one of the later books, Murderbot mentions having started watching a historical TV show about rovers exploring and terraforming planets, and this short story centers rovers (which are like cyborgs I guess). This does have a lot of overlap with TMBD books and stories: human/bot hybrids, augmented humans, precocious children, murder mystery, the themes of capitalism exploiting humans and treating them like things, what it means to be human, etc. This was very sad and rather horrifying and I did not enjoy reading it, but it's very thought-provoking. 

 ~

Trigger warnings for this series: violence, murder, death, gore, corpses, blood, body horror, torture, slavery, kidnapping, that thing of constructs being forced to obey by being electric-shocked by their governor modules and forced to hurt and kill (SecUnits) or have sex with humans (ComfortUnits), Murderbot makes references to having been forced to record humans having sex in the past, inferred threat of gendered sexual violence (Platform Decay only; Murderbot stops it), PTSD, anxiety, depression, trauma, capitalism, constructs and bots not having full sentient person rights and being treated like things/property

~

TELEVISION SHOW - Murderbot

I don't think I've ever talked about the TV show, only that I wanted to watch it! I broke down and paid for 6 months of Apple TV+ (they had a pretty good deal for Black Friday) and have probably watched it 3 times at this point. It's a fairly faithful adaptation, although they trimmed down the PresAux crew and kind of dumbed down/simplified everybody a bit. Like show!Pin-Lee is way less confident than books!Pin-Lee, and they made Ratthi a himbo. Casting Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot feels a little uninspired, but he's actually so good in the role; he constantly looks like he's seconds away from vomiting from anxiety, which is perfect. The first (and currently only) season adapted All Systems Red (book 1), and it's a pretty decent adaptation. They added and changed things unnecessarily, of course (I wish we could read the feed stuff that pops up better as it's a little too translucent, and the cubicle's design is ridiculous to the point that it's not a cubicle anymore, and don't get me started on Labeebee), but I really like it. They've greenlit a second season, which will adapt books 2-4!! They're novellas, and all part of a story arc, so it makes sense to do them all at once. I can't wait. Murderbot and ART's friendship is so important to me, and I hope the show does it justice. 

Book Reviews (ish): The Meddle & Mend series by Sarah Wallace redux

I heard about the Meddle & Mend series by Sarah Wallace from a bookstagrammer I follow who loves and promotes the books almost more than the author does. The first one was free, and as it was billed as a Regency cozy queer romance, I obviously downloaded it. I read them during my big summer East coast trip where I went from my annual conference to visit my aunt in Maryland and then stay with my sister and her family for a week during their trip to New York. Reader, I loved the book so much I immediately downloaded the next ebook, and repeated this (read & downloaded the next) for each book in the series. I almost never do that! The rapidity with which this became one of my favorite series is remarkable, as is them becoming one of my comfort series despite only having read them once. Since last July I've been fighting the urge to reread the series at least once a month, which also never happens. Here's a meme I made depicting my monthly struggle: 

I finally gave in to the urge last month because the sixth book in the series was released! I reread all five M&M books over the weekend, and then (after a struggle with stupid B&N who had put a hold on my account for no reason) downloaded and read the sixth book. I thought I'd do a mini rundown review (such as it is) of each book since I didn't have time or space to do so last time I reviewed them. All of the books take place in the same world: a sort of alternate Regency England that has magic and is queernorm, racism-free (and consequently racially diverse), and mostly free of sexism. Classism and poverty still exist, and birth order has replaced patriarchy: firstborns take the place of eldest brothers in terms of inheritance and heading the family after the parents die, plus having more freedom re: reputation. I appreciate the lack of sexism and homophobia etc. as a socially conscious reader, but at some point the genre (Regency historical romance) stops being what it is, plus it raises questions* about the world-building.

Mild spoilers throughout because that's who I am as a person

Letters to Half Moon Street - (synopsis) The first book in the series is an epistolary novel, consisting mainly of letters between Gavin Hartford, who is lonely and bored in London, and his sister Gerry, who is visiting family in Tutting-on-Cress (a country village), plus a few between Gavin and his new friend Charles Kentworthy, who Gerry thinks may be interested in her brother... Gavin is very introverted, shy, antisocial, and terrified of other people (mood), so it is up to charming extrovert Charles to make the friendship happen and make Gavin leave the house and do stuff around London. I enjoyed watching their relationship develop, but I didn't see why Charles needed to be so pushy (why make Gavin take up boxing when he hates it? Why didn't Gavin stand up for himself and say no?). Charles basically made the entire relationship happen himself, and he had to force Gavin every step of the way. Despite my frustrations with the characters, I really liked this book. The story is a bit slow-moving, but in a nice calm way; it's an enjoyable world to live in for a bit. Gay and pan rep, I believe. ★★★★, 0 chili peppers as there's no spice, just kissing and sex work mentions

 

One Good Turn - (synopsis) The second book is written in third person limited (I think), as is most of the rest of the series. Poor, barely-working-class Nell protects a rich man (Charles) from being robbed, kicking off a series of events that change her life. The crimelord, not happy that Nell's sympathy cost him money, sends her and her best friend Pip (who is the crimelord's lover) to steal a magical artifact from a viscount who happens to be Charles's best friend Bertie (we meet him in book 1 but he's not a big part of it). Bertie recognizes Nell's and Pip's magic abilities and offers them a chance to live and study magic with him. Nell jumps at the chance, and begins the life she always dreamed of. She also has to figure out her relationship with her friend with benefits (whose name I of course forgot), a single mother who has no time to go out with her (Nell is ridiculously slow at understanding this). Nell is, as far as I can tell, an aromantic lesbian who is allosexual; the representation is on-page but of course those terms are not used. She's also fat but I didn't pick up on this while reading the book; it may just be a throwaway mention. This book talks about sex much more frankly and frequently since it's from Nell's POV and poor people are not protected from reality the way upper-class people are (there are sex worker characters). This book is sadder and more angry-making than book 1 (it's implied that Pip was groomed into being the crimelord's lover; he basically raised Nell and Pip so that skeeved me out). There is a list of trigger topics in the beginning of the book, plus you can ask me for specifics. ★★★.5 (affectionate), 🌶🌶

The Education of Pip - (synopsis) Don't worry, Pip is rescued from the awful crimelord who groomed him into a sexual relationship after having basically raised him and, it turns out, forced him into sex work. Pip is thrown in jail, which gives Bertie an opportunity to whisk him away from London and his abuser, and takes Pip to live with Charles, Gavin, & Gerry in Tutting-on-Cress (Bertie has a house there too). Like Nell, Pip is taught to read and write and about magic, but he has a lot of healing to do. The T-O-C gang and their staff are so gentle, patient, and understanding with Pip; for him to finally be treated with care and love after everything he went through is so important to me! Part of the reason for Pip being in T-O-C is for him to be Gerry's assistant at her spell shop, which was very interesting to read about. Pip's relationship with Bertie slowly begins to develop as well. This book is pretty heartrending but it does have a happy ending. Gay rep as well as PTSD from everything Pip went through. There is a list of trigger topics in the beginning of the book, plus you can ask me for specifics. ★★★.5 (affectionate), 🌶🌶

Dear Bartleby - (synopsis) Gavin and Gerry have a younger brother, Sebastian; we meet him in the first book when he writes to Gavin to ask him for a loan for his gambling debts. Unsurprisingly, Seb's wildness and pranks cause him to be pulled from Oxford and sent to live with his older siblings and brother-in-law in Tutting-on-Cress. His father gives him a journal to encourage reflection; Seb christens it Bartleby so he can pretend he's writing to a friend so journaling will feel less boring. These journal entries make up the book, which I guess makes this book an epistolary novel despite epistle meaning letter and not diary entry, but whatever. Seb writes about his day, being bored, his pranks, and his attempted seductions. He's kind of annoying at first, but his older siblings and brother-in-law learn how to best love and support him, and he matures, even getting a love interest of his own (a wonderful trans man named Laurence). Also in this story is Bertie's search for a new Royal Magician; he hires Seb as his assistant, so he's very involved in the process. Some of Pip's past comes up as well, so trigger warnings for that. I also really enjoyed this book despite the sad parts. Gay and trans rep. ★★★★, 🌶🌶

The Spellmaster of Tutting-on-Cress - (synopsis) It's Gerry's turn to have a book, a love interest, and her family and friends' meddling. Gerry took over the Tutting-on-Cress spell shop when the previous spellmaster retired, and she's very happy despite it being a step down in society. Everyone in her life thinks it's high time she met someone and settled down, so they all force her to endure blind date teas and, you guessed it, meddling. Basil Thorne has just moved to T-O-C after losing his father to step in as the new head of the family to his much-younger half-siblings (who are just delightful) and stepmother. He's never been part of a big, loud family before, and, on a sibling-demanded trip to the village, has his head turned by the kind, pretty spellmaster...

Skip this part if you don't want to read spoilers or my rants. I ranted about the lack of consent and amatonormativity from the meddling in this other blog post:

everyone kept trying to set up the heroine with this guy she obviously liked even though she explicitly asked them all to not do that and respect her wishes re: not being set up because it's cringey and embarrassing. The whole "it's for your own good! otherwise you'd be single forever!" excuses being used to ignore said wishes just felt gross. It's the lack of respect and ignoring of consent for me. 😠 The lack of apology and/or realization that the setting-up was being pushed on people without their consent is very annoying to me. And the whole smug "see? I was right!" thing when the couples invariably ended up together used to justify it! Ugh. It's not cute or funny, and it smacks of amatonormativity. Not everyone needs to be paired up, and single people aren't tragic! 

The reason it bothers me to read about this amatonormativity and lack of consent is because this series is so otherwise respectful, queer- and trans-friendly; it throws me for a loop. You expect this sort of thing from regular cishet romance novels, you know? In book 2 Nell's aromanticism is respected, although they kind of have her "end up" with someone too. Gerry is basically the sole straight in the series, but she discusses maybe being demi-romantic with her friends and family since she likes Basil (who is pan and in love with her) but doesn't feel a romantic spark and isn't swept off her feet like she expected. They kind of lost me there, since the chemistry between her and Basil was swoony, and reading about how she interacted with him and felt about it didn't feel that different than the way reading about other romantic pairings have felt. Shit, Gerry and Basil have more romantic chemistry and cute interactions than Gavin & Charles and Bertie & Pip combined! Am I on the aromantic spectrum? Who even knows. 

Another sublot is that the Kentworthys host the eldest Hartford brother John and his wife Veronica (and their child who we never see because Veronica believes children should be unseen and unheard???). They are the worst and I hate them. Charles starts his signature loving psychology on John and he starts to improve. Literally how did the Hartford parents fuck up their kids so much that Gerry is the only one who doesn't hate herself and/or is a jerk in the beginning??? Shoutout to Basil's transfem bestie Modesty who is one of my favorite characters in the entire series; she's so awesome and I hope SW writes a book about her or at least that she shows up in all future books. I loved all the kids, even if some of them were written a bit too old and a bit too young sometimes; maybe we'll get a spinoff series about them finding love after they grow up?  This review has gotten way too long so I'll end it here. ★★★.5 (affectionate), 0 chili peppers (just kissing)

The Viscount Says Yes - (synopsis) This book wraps up Pip and Bertie's love story, which started in book 2 (1GT) when Pip flirted with Bertie after being caught trying to steal from him, and Bertie fell in love with him immediately. Their relationship developed very slowly over the next few books, each one giving us a little glimpse into how they felt about one another (how is them just looking at each other without touching in the garden at dusk so gd romantic??). The slow pace was necessary due to Pip's sad history that he needed to heal from (this book takes place about 2 years after TEoP). Bertie and everyone else had always taken great care to avoid touching Pip and asking for consent before doing so etc., and Pip decides he's ready to start initiating physical acts of affection with Bertie as he (B) never would initiate out of respect, and starts thinking about proposing to Bertie for the same reason... Charles, now that he has seen all his other friends and relations settled or about to be, sets his sights on Pip and Bertie, but at least his meddling is proportionally gentler due to Pip's history. I like Charles a lot but with all the meddling, he's basically as controlling as Veronica. Like just let your friends find love their own way and on their own timelines, dude! Anyway, with that title you can guess what happens in the book. Wallace wrote a little note at the end saying they've burned themself out writing the M&M series so they're wrapping up the series with this book. I hope it's a pause and not a full ending, and that she heals from the burnout soon because I need like 1000 more books in this series! ★★★★, maybe half a chili pepper due to sex mentions? dealer's choice

I know I've complained a bunch about the characters and their decisions, but I really do love this series. The magic is very interesting to read about. All the books are kind of slow, but in a nice cozy way; I enjoyed all the time we spent with the characters. If you like cozy fantasy and Regency romance books, especially ones with lots of LGBTQ+ rep, give this series a try!

*If it's a mostly non-sexist and queernorm society, then why do they still care about reputations (basically a code word for virginity)? What does reputation even mean/matter for people/couples who can't get pregnant? Why the heavy emphasis on birth order when being the oldest sibling doesn't automatically mean you're the most responsible and reliable? (I'm the oldest and my siblings are all more responsible and reliable than me. I should NOT be the head of my family.) Why should the laterborn spouse in a firstborn-laterborn marriage take on the 'wife' role (running the household, raising children, etc.) just because they're a laterborn, while the firstborn spouse takes on the 'husband' role (being in charge of the family and finances etc.)? Shouldn't it be based on personality and interests, and/or shouldn't the roles be shared? Why are there still social classes and poverty? How does capitalism still exist without white supremacy and the patriarchy there to support it?

Book (and movie) Review: Matilda by Roald Dahl

Ok, right off the bat, this is not going to be a traditional book review, as I've read this book several times and it's one of my favorites. Much like my All Creatures Great and Small review, I'm just going to be talking about both and comparing them. Spoilers for both, obvi.

Matilda is one of my favorite books of all time. She's the first character I remember looking at and thinking "oh she's me for real". As the tiny, dark-haired, overlooked, book-loving daughter of a smallish, angry, mustachioed man prone to shouting, I added her to my heart immediately. She's the first mirror I remember. While I technically haven't read Matilda that many times, I remembered quite a lot of the book and its little details. I had forgotten Matilda was kind of rude to Miss Honey about being poor and living in a cottage just barely better than a shack (unsurprising, given her awful parents), leaving me to mentally go "that's not in the book!" when the movie showed it. I'd forgotten about the boys Miss Trunchball tortured, although I re-remembered the ear-stretching scene when it happened in the movie. I remembered Bruce Bogtrotter and the enormous chocolate cake, Mrs. Phelps and the library, and Lavender and the newt. I'd remembered most of Matilda's revenge pranks on her family, and of course the wonderful comeuppance at the end. It struck me how quiet and slow-moving the book is, compared to my memory of it. Each chapter focuses on a specific part, and we move along like a bulleted list.

It's interesting how many British authors have written about characters stuck in horrible, abusive schools. This mirrors their own experiences; British boarding schools have historically been neglectful, abusive places filled with bullies and tyrannical teachers who used physical force. Major trigger warnings for all the abuse, but this article talks about it. Roald Dahl himself wrote a memoir, Boy, about his childhood and experiences in said schools. C.S. Lewis went to one such awful boarding school, and the schools in his children's books are similarly awful. It strikes me that having so many generations go through abusive & neglectful schools kind of explains why England was so awful to the countries it invaded; abused people often abuse people.

On to the movie. Going off of people's clothing and hair, the movie is set in the 1980s, which is when the book was published. This is an interesting choice, and I like it. It makes sense too, as they were more lenient on physical punishments in schools back then. The opening song mirrors the book's opening chapter about parents who think their kid is special and brilliant despite what they're really like. The girl who played Matilda was basically perfect. She played Matilda a trifle less quiet than she seems in the book, but that's to be expected in a musical and movie, where you want your characters to stand out. Matilda has dark eyes as well as hair in the book, and the actress having blue eyes as well as brown hair made her look rather like me as a child (definitely a plus). It made me a bit sad that the lovely language Matilda uses to describe how she feels when she uses her powers was downgraded: "flying over the silver stars" etc. to "it fizzes". Matilda and all the children were a bit too old, which is expected in movies. Matilda and her class are basically kindergartners (5 or 6 years old), and seemed about 7-9 years old in the movie. Hortensia, the one older kid Matilda talks to, seems about 12 or 13 rather than 11. She is so cool in the movie and rather wasted, imo. I'm wondering if one of the songs that was cut from the movie was her describing her pranks on Miss Trunchbull like she does in the book. I wish they'd left all the songs in.

The parents were pretty much perfect (i.e. gross and mean). The actress playing Mrs. Wormwood is very thin; the book Mrs. Wormwood is fat, and the view and descriptions of her character are pretty fatphobic, so I'm not mad at the change. Both movie parents have more middle?-class accents, which makes sense for a used car dealer and his wife, but can come off as classist as all the other characters have nicer British accents (I love all British accents). In the movie, Mrs. Wormwood didn't want to be pregnant or have a baby at all, being in denial about it, and Mr. Wormwood wanted a boy and not a girl. He refers to Matilda as "boy" and he/him during the movie, with Matilda saying "I'm a girl" after each time; this, as some tumblr user pointed out, makes her trans-coded. They cut out Matilda's older brother, which I guess kind of makes sense for movie streamlining, but that also lowers the heartbreak and unfairness as the parents treat the son normally/nicely and treat their daughter terribly. This is consistent with what narcissistic parents often do; they have a favorite child and a scapegoat child. The only parental prank they cut out was the parrot one, which makes sense. It's probably the least satisfying one, anyway. It would have been funnier if Mrs. Wormwood cut the glued-on hat off Mr. Wormwood's head like in the book, but I guess they wanted to cut down on the hair and makeup budget. I'm guessing the other song that was cut was the parents', maybe the "you chose books/I chose looks" line, which would make a fantastic song. In the end of the movie, when Matilda magics the hat off her father's head as a thanks for finally calling her his daughter and letting her stay with Miss Honey, was nice but not in the book. The Wormwoods deserve no redemption.

I like the diverse casting for the movie. I'm guessing they changed Mrs. Phelps' library into a cute retro bookmobile library so they could shoot in different pretty locales, but I'm not mad at it. I want to dress like her when I grow up. I'm not sure why the movie adaptations all tend to make Lavender (Matilda's best friend) meek and sometimes even mousey; maybe it's to set off how courageous Matilda is? In the book, they are described as equally gutsy and adventurous. The movie understandably made the other memorable kids (Bruce, the pigtails girl) be in Matilda's class. I get the reason for this, but it does mean we don't deal much with the other students. I didn't like how Bruce gets dragged to the chokey after finishing the cake in the movie; this doesn't happen in the book, as Trunchball accepts her defeat angrily. Miss Honey was perfect. You felt for her and rooted for her to be free. Emma Thompson played Miss Trunchbull very well, with her weird square fake jaws and fatsuit and weird, blocky platform shoes. She was adequately scary. I'm not sure why they moved the chokey from her headquarters to the woods, but it was creepy. It could definitely be argued that movie!Matilda's final revenge was definitely way past her abilities (making a chain monster AND destroying all the chokeys [excellent choice btw] AND plaiting Trunchball's hair into two braids at the same time AND spinning and throwing her out the window by her hair). That would've knocked Matilda out a third of the way through. The changes did feel more cathartic, though; Trunchball deserved to be thrown out the window by her hair. Having the children read out the "ghost's" words on the chalkboard out loud in unison? Perfectly creepy.

On the biggest addition to the movie: despite their backstories already being incredibly similar, the movie decided to really underscore this by giving Matilda psychic abilities on top of her telekinesis: she sees pieces of Miss Honey's story, in which Miss Honey's parents are circus performers for some reason and Miss Trunchbull is responsible for Miss Honey's mother's death as well as her father's, and abused Miss Honey as a child. It is really interesting, though, how we the audience are made to think it's Matilda dealing with her parents' abuse and neglect through this story she's telling Mrs. Phelps; indeed, Matilda sees herself as the abused little girl. They sadly left out Miss Honey's courageousness in becoming a teacher and renting the cottage behind her aunt's back; I love that for her. I love her cottage, too; it makes sense she'd decorate it with her pupils' art, and it should have been like that in the book. TBH, the book takes it a bit too far: Miss Honey sleeps on the floor and owns no furniture. You're telling me she wouldn't find stuff off the street or at yard sales? Anyway. The movie ends very similarly to the book, with Miss Honey getting her house back and the Wormwoods running away from the consequences of Mr. Wormwood's crookedness and letting Matilda live with Miss Honey. In the movie, Miss Honey is also left in charge of the school and turns it into a beautiful, colorful, carnival-inspired Montessori dream. The book is more practical: an older, good teacher became headmaster after Trunchbull bounced.

I really liked the songs in the movie; they intersected and played together beautifully. I really like the cleverness of the alphabet/school song and had "Revolting Children" stuck in my head for days. It's been ages since I've watched the 1990s Matilda, but I feel that this one is the closest adaptation yet. Matilda the Musical is on Netflix, and I really recommend it.

link

 

Trigger warnings for both book and movie: child abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, child endangerment, children forced to stand in nail-studded spiky closet for hours without being able to sit, child forced to eat a huge cake (food-related abuse), abusive parents, narcissistic parenting, abusive and enabling school staff, adult basically enslaves child and forces her to do all the cleaning, adult waterboards child (book only), off-page/screen suggested murder, poor adult, food insecurity, newts


Book Reviews

Yes Please by Amy Poehler (early March)
Loved this. Loved that she put old pictures in this. Love her. 4/5

Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg (late March)
Mallory is a genius and her website is one of my favorites on all the Internet. These are hilarious. 5/5

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (early April)
I'd seen most of the comics since I follow her blog religiously. Love them and her. 5/5

Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (mid April)
I grew up reading Dave Barry and he shaped my sense of humor. This book (definitely for adults) was pretty funny but not the most memorable or recommended. If you like either of those authors and stories where every mistake and happenstance builds and intersects and the stakes keep getting higher and higher, then you will enjoy this. I found this at the dollar store and don't regret buying it, but I'm going to give it away since I just have so many books and limited shelf space. 3/5

September book haul

From an estate sale I went to a couple weeks ago:
-Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (I read somewhere that fans of Jane Eyre would like this so I bought it)
-Laments For the Living by Dorothy Parker (I have her Enough Rope and adored it. This book is of short stories rather than poems but who cares)
-Sonnets From the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (I had bought a different copy for a friend for her birthday but apart from reading the few sonnets everybody knows I haven't read this myself)
-the aforementioned New York Public Library Desk Reference book, which I bought for and have at work

Oh I just remembered I had bought a book from an earlier estate sale as well. It's this 1800s book of Sir Walter Scott's collected poetical works, in leather. Not bookbinding leather, like straight up cowhide, with flowers painted on it. It's so old! I'm not a Scott fan (haven't read anything by him, although I have Ivanhoe waiting for me on my bookshelf) but it was so fragile and amazing I couldn't leave it behind. It has a picture and signature (probably also a picture, rather than physically signed) of the author inside, facing the title page, but the first like 8 pages are bug-eaten so I don't know which year it's from. Definitely from the 1800s, though.
I also bought from this estate sale the DVD of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I'd been wanting to watch for ages.

From my public library's year-round booksale:
-Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (read this already. Cracked up throughout, like straight up bursting out laughing p. much every page. One word: BANJOLELE. I must read the others. Only qualms: blackface is a plot point! Not once but twice!! And the N-word is dropped casually, constantly, by every character except for Jeeves [perf human being and the best]. Oh 1930s, you so racist. :/)
-Codex by Lev Grossman (I just like grabbed it off the shelf because it was called codex and the cataloging notes said medievalists–fiction. I'm currently reading this. It's about this guy, an investment banker or something, who gets assigned to catalog and sort a rare books collection/library of some English aristocrats and also gets hooked on a virtual reality, quest videogame which I think is supposed to mirror his IRL search for a mythical codex in that library. It's very slow moving; we just see the guy sort and catalog books and then go home and play the videogame and sleep. I love it. I can sort and catalog books all day; apparently I can also read about people sorting and cataloging books all day too. It's just my speed, interesting and old books and not too high-stakes. Also there's a standoffish medievalist grad student who helps the guy and she is basically 10000% done with everything and only cares about the books and medieval/Renaissance/book history. I love her. I'm sorta hoping they become bros instead of ending up together but that's what will probly happen.)

I just bought The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce, which is just as lovely as I remembered. Such a wonderful book. I had sorta forgotten about it until I saw the picture book at Barnes & Noble. It was, interestingly, a short animated film (which won an Oscar) first, then an app (which I did not know), and now a picture book. You'd think it'd be the other way around, ironically enough. Anyway, I found and read the book (gorgeous; they made it look like the one ML writes in!) but didn't buy it since picture books are hideously expensive. But lo and behold, I got a 20% off B&N coupon in my email and bought the book at a reduced price using the last of my giftcard money! Worth it.

Favorite websites: Threadless.com

I have a bit of an obsession with this website. Threadless sells T-shirts, mainly, cool screen-print ones (as well as other clothing items and accessories). If you like the image on the T-shirt, you can often get it as an art print, iPhone case, or hoodie. Artists from all over the world contribute designs. I like that all designs are available for both guys and girls regardless of what you think the audience would be. They also have excellent customer service and fast shipping. I'd heard of them from somewhere on the Internet a while back but didn't start buying from them until a few months ago. It started when I bought my brother Ricardo this shirt (he plays the piano). He really liked it, and when I filled out a survey, Threadless sent me a coupon. I found this shirt and had to have it (it is basically me in T-shirt form). I adore it. The fabric's really soft, and it has 2 of my favorite things. I also bought my brother Jonatan this T-shirt for his bday, which he seems to have liked. When I bought his shirt I also bought myself this shirt, which is probably one of my all-time pieces of Sherlock fanart. It's like the Book of Kells meets Sherlock. Amazing. I haven't worn it because it's too hot, but it's hanging on my wall like a wearable poster. I keep having to stop myself from buying an art print since the shirt fulfills that purpose. The only thing is that, by the time I bought it, they had sold out of girls so I had to get a guy T-shirt. I don't know if it's because it's a guy T-shirt or because it's not a Select shirt like my book heart tee but the fabric feels thicker and not as soft. Anyway.
Right now they're having a sale and I'm kinda trying to decide between these $8 shirts: 1 (purple! pandas! Dia de los Muertos-type face designs, aka my heritage!), 2 (monarch butterflies are my favorite), 3 (SuperMario x the famous Magritte painting! That's 2 kinds of nerdiness), 4 (cool revamp of The Wizard of Oz)
I also like these book/library T-shirts: 1, 2, 3 (I especially like this one and hope they reprint it. IDK if it would be inappropriate for work). I also really like this one but I'm waiting for the price to drop.

The Secret of Kells

For St. Patrick's Day, Hulu has The Secret of Kells available to watch. I had been wanting to see it since it's about an illuminated manuscript/book that is real, the Book of Kells (largely considered Ireland's greatest national treasure, according to Wikipedia), and I heard the animation was amazing. I am so glad I finally got to watch it. It has pretty much everything I love: illuminated manuscripts, books, medieval stuff, mythology, early Christianity, gorgeous art, nature and forests, the triumph of light over darkness... I could go on and on. It's now one of my favorite movies ever. I haven't see anything this lovely and wondrous since the Morris Lessmore film. I love it so much.

Chi Ro monogram from the actual Book of Kells. [source] Chi and Ro are the first two letters of "Christ" in Greek, so it's basically a symbol for Jesus.

Michelangelo's paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

On this day, November 1, 1512, Pope Julius II unveiled Michelangelo Buonarroti's frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome for the first time. It took Michelangelo four years to paint them, and he hated it. He wrote this poem about it, which I love because it's one long complaint:

To Giovanni da Pistoia
"When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel"

I've already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin, my beard's
pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush,
above me all the time, dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind and aimless.
My skin hangs loose below me, my spine's
all knotted from folding over itself.
I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.
Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts
are crazy, perfidious tripe:
anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe.
My painting is dead.
Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor.
I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.

Not a painter! I love him. I went to the Sistine Chapel when I was in Italy, and it was glorious. Absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking. I'm sad he was forced to do it and that he suffered, but I think it was worth it because of the beautiful legacy he left to the world. Think of all the people who have been uplifted by its beauty.

You can read all of Michelangelo's poems here
The text of the poem is from this Slate article, which is excellent and you should totally read it
Image source
History info is from The Writer's Almanac's enewsletter for today

LA Times Festival of Books 2012

Just got back from it. I had a great time! I got a free mini mocha McFrappe (McDonald's answer to the Frappuccino or however you spell that), a chocolate brownie Clif bar and fruit gummy thing, a sample of avocado-pineapple smoothie (consistency is like applesauce but it tastes like calmer, less acidic pineapple),  a pretty little copy of the Quran, some bookmarks, a purple tote bag, a plastic visor with the USC Keck Medical Center logo, and an I READ button. I wrote what I'm reading on the big canvas poster the LA Times has where you can do that (that's where I got the button), and my nerdy heart was warmed when I saw others had written DFTBA and I BELIEVE IN SHERLOCK HOLMES! :') The only thing I'm sad about is that John Green was only there on Saturday, yesterday, so I wasn't able to see/hear/meet him. I bought a bigger button with the LATFOB logo (this year's has a dinosaur) and saw Julie Andrews (!) from a ways away and heard her read from her children's book. I also went to a panel at the YA stage and heard The Fug Girls and a couple other YA authors read from their books and talk about the writing process. Then I bought Spoiled and had it signed by the Fug Girls themselves! I was so psyched to meet them; I've been reading their blog for years and feel like I know them. They were very nice and just as bubbly as I'd imagined them. Now I have to head back to school, but I'm glad I got a chance to go!

Belief

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen—I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." ~Samantha Black Crow, American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

This movie won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. It is now one of my all-time favorite movies. Utterly lovely and wonderful. (I didn't get the pun in the main character's name until just now.)

Two things that made me happy today

-I'm sitting at the bus stop when two guys pass me. "...Streets ahead!" says one. "Streets ahead?" repeats the other. "March 15!" the first replies. If you're a Community fan, you got that. I've never seen other Community fans in real life or at least heard them talk about the show.
-When I'm about to cross the street while walking home, a car stops at the sign in front of me, my favorite song by Gotye blasting from its speakers. With the biggest grin on my face, I step off the curb to cross the street, singing the ending line, "Now you're just somebody that I used to know..."

Two bonus random/embarrassing things:
-It was cold when I was walking home, so I pulled on the hood of my magenta hoodie. I pass a guy who laughs at me: "You look just like Little Red Riding Hood!"
-When I get to the apartment door, my key card doesn't work. Seeing the lights on, I ring the doorbell so my roommate could open the door for me. A girl I don't know opens the door. That's when I realize I'm at the wrong apartment complex. It looked exactly the same as my apartment, surroundings and all.

Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Ahhh this book was SO GOOD. I liked it so much it's a new favorite. It includes a lot of my favorite things to read about: secretly sneaking around inside of city walls and buildings, mysteries that might change people's destinies, people who are geniuses at something awesome (in this case, putting together mechanical things), lock-picking (I really want to learn how to do that), dreams, gorgeous black and white illustrations, etc. Oh, it also includes an old-fashioned key with a heart, which is featured prominently on a teaser poster for the movie (I really wish they had kept the original title because it's way more awesome and old-fashioned-sounding and mysterious. "HUGO" does not inspire me to go see a movie. Plus, the font they used is too childish and whimsical). I hope they sell necklaces with the key as a pendant for movie merchandise because I rilly rilly want one.
Anyway, Hugo is a mechanically talented boy with many secrets. What happens when he runs into an old man with similar mechanical talent and just as many secrets? Literary dynamite, that's what. Also, the man's goddaughter Louise is awesome and has just as many skills (the lock-picking with a bobby pin among them) and she's a bookworm so I love her. The story is told with tons of gorgeous black and white pencil drawings as well as photographs from old movies. TIOHC won the Caldecott Award that year, which caused an uproar since that award is for picture books and this book is a novel. However, the pictures are just as important to the story as the words are, so I'd say it counts. This book was fantastic and everyone should read it immediately, especially old movie buffs. 5/5 stars

"I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too."

"Chanson D'Adventure" by C.S. Lewis

I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear
'This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

'Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

'This year time's nature will no more defeat you,
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

'This summer will not lead you round and back
To autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

'Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
The gates of good adventure swing apart.

'This time, this time, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.'

I said, 'This might prove truer than a bird can know;
And yet your singing will not make it so.'

This is one of my favorite poems by my favorite author, C.S. Lewis. Not many people know that he wrote poetry. I love this poem because of the sense of hope and expectancy and magic it has; it's perfect for the beginning of summer, and by the time autumn begins I am always one year older (my birthday is August 29). I'm going to try to memorize this poem. Source: The Inklings blog.