amelia_petkova

Maybe this will be a way to keep me posting more often! I didn't read a lot of books in January but I did get through two audio books:

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Revolution is a Young Adult novel that I know is popular because the library I used to work at had copies stolen repeatedly so that I could never actually borrow it while I was there. Andi is a high school senior in NYC whose life is a mess: she's depressed, suicidal, self-destructive, and has to take care of her mother who is more or less catatonic after the death of her little brother. We don't actually find out how her brother (Truman) died until late into the book, but we know from the beginning that there was something very wrong about what happened. The only thing keeping Andi going is playing her guitar and her music lessons at school. During winter break she's hauled off to Paris by her mostly-absent father and forced to work on her senior thesis, a project about musical DNA starting with a fictional French composer named Mahlerbeau who lived during the French Revolution. And then things get weird.

The book is long and I was surprised at how quickly it went by. Andi is definitely not a happy camper and she makes sure everyone around her knows it. At times it almost goes overboard but generally the author does a good job of showing a person who's been stuck in despair for two years now and is barely hanging on. The portion of the story set in France really grabbed me and I laughed in many of the scenes when Andi is describing her rich, pretentious classmates.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has been on my To Read list for years. It's a non-fiction book about Native Americans during the second half of the 19th century. Predictably, it's depressing and harrowing, but always fascinating. I knew a little bit of the tribes and events Brown recounts, but most of the specifics were new to me. It focuses primarily on the western half of the country though trips to Washington, D.C. turn up occasionally. Some of the things I'd vaugely known of before reading this book but didn't really learn about till now where Geronimo, Custer, the Ghost Dance, and the origin of the saying "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

One of the things that surprised me were the examples of people in the U.S. government and military who actually tried to help the various tribes and make things better, but these people were typically changed to a different position, fired, or driven to the point where they resigned. I think my favorite is a white mail carrier who'd been harassed by a tribe (I'm sorry, I didn't write down which tribe or chapter this happens in and it's a very long book) while carrying out his duties to the point where he almost quits. One day, he waltzes up to where the tribe is currently camped, sets down the gun he carries, and walks right up to their chief and sits down to work things out. Look, I'm just trying to do my job, I'm not trying to do anything on your land except get through to carry the mail in and out, how about you guys get off of my back? And then the mail carrier and the chief became friends and stayed friends for the rest of their lives.

Sharing some of the books I read this year and my thoughts on them!

The Light Princess by George MacDonald: A princess is cursed to float about in the air. My favorite part is the princess's evil aunt's eyes that literally change color according to her mood.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: I listened to a great audio book of this. It's done entirely in script format so I don't know if the actual book is very different. Eartha Kitt voiced Kaa the snake!

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I loved the concept of this but wish I liked the actual book more. I just think I don't care for James's writing style.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Care by Fannie Flagg: Another audio book winner. The accents were so great and I loved the characters, both in the present day and in the "past" sections of the story. Idgie and Ruth are so great together and I was crying by the end of the book. I really need to watch the whole movie adaptation at some point.

Irish Earth Folk by Diarmuid MacManus: I'm always a sucker for books of folktales and folklore, and the fact that this book's focus is on a certain geographic area and all the stories are connected to people that either the author knew or are told by friends of friends made it especially interesting.

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Time travel to the Middle Ages and our protagonist accidentally ends up in the period of the Black Death. A great book and totally heartbreaking in parts.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale: True crime about the murder of a child in Victorian England. So, so good and I really need to write a longer post about it because the events were a major inspiration for...

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: Great mystery novel. I'm still surprised that I enjoy Collins so much, given that he was major buddies with Charles Dickins and and I couldn't stand Dickens when I had to read him in high school.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: One of the only dystopia/post-apocalyptic novels I've really enjoyed and wanted to re-read.

A Desperate Fortune by Susanne Kearsley: Not my favorite Kearsley novel that I've read--I'm not as into Jacobins as she is--but I still liked it a lot. Notable for having a heroine with Asperger's who's treated well by the story, though I can't say how accurate the depiction is.

The Duchess by Amanda Foreman: A biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A very fascinating woman who got married way too young, was really good at politics, and had an astounding gambling problem.

The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald: I liked this one just as much as The Light Princess. I've had a copy of this book for years but never got around to reading it until now. Curdie is clearly the most capable character in the entire book.

Lud-in-the Mist by Hope Mirrlees: A 1920s fantasy novel that I partly liked so much because the style is so different from current fantasy. Also, fairy fruit that makes people act unnaturally is a major part of the plot and I'm always up for that.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: Takes place in present-day Australia and Victorian England. A woman finds out that she was abandoned and then adopted as a child and tries to find out her origins. It took me a little while to get into things, but by the time I'd gotten halfway through the book I didn't want to put it down.

The Mabinogion, Sioned Davies edition: I love it so much! I'm really glad that this is the version I had when I finally got around to reading these stories.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson: Turned out to be a lot different from the film version. A light, quick novel that's completely delightful and Miss Pettigrew has the wonderful time she's long deserved.

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich: The first of Erdrich's novels I've read and I definitely want to read more of her works.

The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander: Historical fiction about Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia and the Russian Revolution. The Kitchen Boy was the first Alexander novel I read and this one is just as good.

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley: Notable in that it's as much about the Georgian period as Jane Austen. I knew a fair bit about her already from the Austen class I took in college but I learned a lot more from this book.

Arrowood by Laura McHugh: A young woman returns to her family's home where her baby sisters disappeared when she was a young child. Very Gothic.

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly: First novel in a mystery series set in County Cork, Ireland. I wish it had been more about bog bodies, but otherwise I liked it.

Try to write a filk song of "He Had It Coming" from the POV of Marian in "The Woman in White".

So in the movie, Sarah's given thirteen hours to get from the entrance of the Labyrinth to the castle in the Goblin City. Let's assume that in the world of the Labyrinth, there have been multiple people who are issued the same challenge with the same time limit. Does it have to be thirteen consecutive hours? Or would it be possible for somebody make a deal where it has to be solved in thirteen hours where they could be scattered about a longer amount of time and whenever they have to "work" on it, they're dropped into the spot where they left off last time?

1. I finally started the "import LJ to DW" process. I'll only be posting to DW after this but at this time I don't plan on deleting my LJ account since there's still one community I participate in.

2. Finally had my appointment today to see a specialist because of a clogged ear due to ear wax, which became even worse (constant feeling of pressure and difficulty hearing) after a first attempt at flushing it out at my regular doctor. How is this fixed, you might ask? In my case, basically by vacuuming out the ear wax. It was weird as hell and uncomfortable, but not painful and now I can hear again.

3. I clapped like a seal and cheered when I heard that Bill O'Reilly got fired. I'll take any victory we can get.

4. Flowers and trees are blooming everywhere and it makes me feel a lot better.

5. It's so hard making time to write these days. One of the only things I miss about my schedule from the work environment from hell was that I could get up and spend an hour writing before doing anything else a couple of days each week. I'm too tired on weeknights now and I don't always succeed at writing on the weekends. Trying to figure out a solution.

Things I've done since my last post just over a month ago:

My February charity donation went to the Standing Rock DAPL protest fund.

Called Chris Collins' office to state that I disagree with his decision not to hold town hall meetings. He's been an asshole about it. I want to make myself a polite pain in the butt by calling his office constantly as a result but haven't been able to work my way up to it yet.

I submitted a comment on the European Union's website asking them not to require visas of American just wanting to visit EU countries.

That sums it up. I had unexpected time off from work the past couple days and I wanted to call my representatives' offices since it would be easy for me to call during the day for once. But I couldn't decide what to call about and it's too late now. But I did get some knitting done on a scarf I plan on donating to charity or a homeless shelter.

After turning on my computer today and watching some of the morning news:

--John Hurt is dead
--Trump's presidential twitter account is registered with a Gmail address and not well-secured
--Trump bans refugees from majority Muslim countries on Holocaust Remembrance Day

From yesterday:

--Trump continues to insist that American's won't pay for the border wall and Mexico will, despite Mexico's president repeatedly saying "WTF, no we won't, what's the matter with you?" and cancelling an official trip to the U.S.

Fuck it all, I'm making tea.

I got up early this morning and am drinking a cup of strong tea in preparation for going out to vote. The line shouldn't be too long because I live in a more-or-less rural area, but I'm mentally preparing myself just in case. Also, I'm bringing a book and music along. This is one of the times when my frustrating work schedule comes in handy--because I don't have to be there until later in the day, it gives me plenty of time to vote this morning. Good luck to everybody else who's going out!

Laura’s father wielding bear spray was a great introduction. It's nice that we finally get to see him after all those times Laura said her dad was going to kill her.

Lots of spoilers from here on.

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It’s back! I finally get to watch Season 3 of Carmilla. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like that the creators are ending the show with this season. I’ve seen way too many TV shows that just go on and on for as many seasons as they can squeeze out until everything is horrible and you want the show to put everyone out of its misery. I like it much more when stories have a beginning, middle, and an end.

Immediate reactions and thoughts on the effects of being vampired in the Carmilla universe are behind a spoiler cut, since the season is still so new.

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