4/16/24

Watching a good deal of sex and the city rn. I think I just have a crush on sarah jessica parker because most of their cultural takes are bad and slightly offensive. However, there is something to be said for saying your opinion with your chest.

4/3/24

Watched the movie everything everywhere all at once the other night. I really liked the movie as I feel it catered to modern attention span in a cool way. Multiverse slays. I especially liked the realm where the evelyn and deirdre had hotdog fingers and were in love.

3/15/24

Starting "the berry pickers".

3/15/24

Update on Florida by Lauren Groff now that I have finished it. Stellar group of short stories. Her writing gives me a bit of whiplash but in a good way. She mentions the unmentionables in a characters life. For instance the mother in one of the stories gets an email as she's sitting on a peaceful patio in France to notify her that a friend of hers died by suicide. This is mentioned and then forgotten as soon as it comes up. Rather dark things like this are sprinkled throughout the stories with a comforting normalcy. I appreciate this about the stories. Having consumed far too much realistic fiction in the last year I feel as a genre it has the tendency to stay too mundane. Now, mundanity is an extremely workable literary topic, but like mundane in the sense that the darkest thing a character can hold in their realm of experience is grief for a dead loved one. Not to say that grief isn't earth shattering, rather to note that much realistic fiction starts and stops at the topics that would be mentionable in casual conversation. (though I want to note here that grief often does not feel mentionable). Ugh i'm trying to get out what I am thinking. Like most realistic fiction. UGH. Anyway Lauren Groff does it right in weaving complexity into simple stories. Well done Lauren thank you for your book.

2/6/24

Reading the Fourth Wing rn. It has been so long since I have picked up a fantasy novel and enjoyed it. I am eating this one up. It's about dragon riders. UPDATE: My mom sent me this book and the next one. They are smutty. Like soooooooooooo smutty. And not even good smut either.

1/24/24

Reading Florida by Lauren Groff rn. A book of short stories all based in Florida. I read one last night that tracked the life of a person from when he was a small boy all the way to his death. It was very beautiful. However, I do always find it funny when like a major piece of a fictional character is that they have always liked/been good at math. "numbers just made sense when the rest of the world was chaotic". Is this how people who like math feel? Or do they just want to be good in school and feel smart? Can math verge into spirituality as is so often suggested by such starry eyed mathematically entranced individuals? Can it become a common thread through a life- a god?

I also feel like math upsets the most bitter part of me. Calculus and I were never friends and so I get jealous of people- even of characters that like it. I put the full weight of my worldly struggles onto the fact that I never quite understood math. I guess everyone needs something to shove off all there limitations onto.

I also grew up with the idea that some people just didn't have the brain for math and science. That since I had an artistically inclined mind there is no way I could understand the other realm. Left brained or right brained. I don't believe this anymore, but it still guides the way I think about my strengths and limitations.

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BOOKS

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MOST RECENT

The Glass Castle- Jeannete Walls

I have just this week read the book and finished the movie that goes to the glass castle. This is a beautifully written story and it made me cry a whole lot.

Jeannette details her relationship to her alcoholic father writing about him with stars in her eyes. She describes all the brilliance along with the cruelty. She characterizes him as a dreamer above all else--floating in his glass castle in a permanent state of unreality.

The movie made me cry a lot. It's beautifully done and captures the memoir in full.

UPDATE OVER

Liars Club ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

This is a memoir detailing the tumultuous childhood of Mary Karr in Litchfield Texas. I have heard about this book for a long time, and it did not disappoint. Specifically the way that she writes about food was really impactful to me. One of her isms is that she loves to say that a spicy or garlicky food "burns the inside of your nostrils".

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Braiding Sweetgrass⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this with a flounder post. This may be the most impactful and hopeful book I have ever read. I cannot recommend the audio book read by the author enough. Her imagination for humanity as a positive force for our environment is like earth shattering. I love her so much and I love how she writes about plants.

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The Lost Apothecary⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆

I was really excited for this book based on the premise. It is historical fiction about an apothecary in London that dispensed poison to women so that they could poison their abusive husbands. This is such a cool premise to a book, and I enjoyed the book but honestly not that much. Like the writing just wasn't that good.

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Gone Girl⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

SPOILER

So basically the book is digging into the case of a woman who has gone missing on her fifth anniversary. The first half of the book is like basically making the husband look really guilty and like he murdered her. The second half you find out that she is actually a sociopath that framed him for her murder.

I thought a lot about the stories we tell around violence in straight relationships. This is useful in one sense in that Amy is clearly so fucking crazy, and it really illustrates how crazy you have to be to lie about your husband murdering you. She went so far as to lance her arm to leave blood on the floor, and also murdered another man.

However, how much does this story just reiterate the fear of a woman who is batshit insane making false accusations of violence against a man? Does this story shift a narrative or just increase the idea that there are a large portion of women out there alleging violence in order to ruin someone's reputation? I don't know, but it was a pretty good book. I can't tell if I like this take on he-said-she-said though.

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MILLENIUM SERIES ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST

The reason that all of these are in all caps is simply that this is my favorite series I have maybe ever read. The titles are cheugy at best, but please don't let them scare you away.

I could write a thousand love letters to both the protagonists. One -bloomkvist is a reporter and he is really cool. The other- lisbeth salandar is the best protagonist ever.

If you are not interested in the series, the girl with the dragon tattoo stands alone. This book takes place in sweden and details the reporter's investigation on a rich family's missing daughter. I honestly don't know what else to say. I finished this trilogy months ago now and all I can remember is that it's my favorite series that I have ever read and that I think you should read it too.⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆

This book is popular for a reason. Gay and well written.

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Ninth House--Hell Bent Leigh Bardugo⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎

Ninth house is the first book of this series. The author also wrote Shadow and Bone. Ninth house is really good! It's an immersive fantasy novel set in newhaven Connecticut. I really like the way that magic is evil and used by rich people to make more money in this. Also love a fantasy novel set in our modern world. Hell Bent is the second of the series and I did not like it. I did not finish it because I got bored. Ninth House is worth reading alone.

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Educated ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

This is a memoir written by a person who grew up with a fundamentalist mormon father who was constantly sure the world was gonna end and lived alone on a mountain homestead with his family. She establishes out of the gate that the book is not about mormonism. By the end I understood that it was more about extremist ignorance and the writers slow realization of her reality.

There is lots of family trauma in this book, but it does not fall into the large quantity of books wherein a person simply details the abuse they endured as a child. This is a insightful and hopeful memoir. It also had me on the edge of my seat nearly the whole time. I listened to this book after work finished because it had me so invested. Please read it.

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Apples Never Fall ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

This book is about how a family's mother went missing and police suspect their father.

The writer is really good at describing suburbia and giving breath to each and every one of the characters.

Honestly though, I wouldn't recommend it. It's probably twice as long as it needs to be and the plot is a huge let down.

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Pulling The Chariot of the Sun⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎

Written by acclaimed poet Shane McRae it takes you through his experience being kidnapped at age three by his white supremacist grandparents from his Black father.

Initially I was really invested in this. The writing style is very unique and it is a very accurate representation of traumatic amnesia (as an amnesiac myself). Though this does get a little bit old. He presents doubt with nearly every trivial memory and the book bounces through time leaving the reader with no real conception of his progression through his life. While this is accurate to amnesia, it also makes the book get boring and repetitive.

That being said I think it's worth a read as it is very poetic and also very short.

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The Painted Girls ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

A historical fiction meshing two stories- one of a murder in the lower class of paris and how the upper class treated the murderer as a prime example of a genetically born criminal (ew) and another of three very poor sisters who join the ballet to escape poverty.

It specifically focuses in on one of the three sisters mari (actual historical figure) who was the subject for edgar degas controversial sculpture "the little dancer of fourteen years"

Controversial --https://www.thecollector.com/why-did-edgar-degas-little-dancer-cause-scandal/

Basically he sculpted Mari's face with features that many at the time thought were those of 'born criminals'. This is especially interesting when one considers the function of the paris opera ballet at the time. The opera trained hundreds of very poor girls and treated them poorly with unfair wages and long hours. Additionally, the ballet was a brothel with exploitation in all of its wings.

With the sculpture degas was basically saying that Mari was born into a life of crime and squalor and was genetically predisposed to hardship. And not in sympathetic way, in a eugenics way.

This is a very interesting book and I would highly recommend it. Had me thinking a lot about material surroundings and how they impact our experience of life. Did suffering feel different when surrounded by linen rather than polyester? Was there more physical escape for the mind and senses when one lived a life free of plactic? Are we truly the lucky ones to have the aesthetics and materials of old separated from the din of our every day lives? In our separation do we appreciate them more? Is artificiality truly as grating as I find it to be?

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PODCASTS

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Ologies- Various Episodes

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MUSIC

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Renewal- Billy Strings

Childish Prodigy- Kurt Vile

Fetch the Bolt Cutters- Fiona Apple