T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land // Un Chien Andalou (1929) dir. Luis Buñuel // Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky (1949) // William S. Burroughs, Queer (1985) // Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son (c. 1819-1823) // Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980) // Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982) dir. Alan Parker // Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” (1835) // Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves (2000) // Elliott Smith, “Don’t Go Down” (2004)
Beauty and the Beast - Julia Lester (she/her) as Belle, requested by anon
Birthday: January 28, 2000 (age 22)
Birth Place: Los Angeles, California
Theatre credits include: Little Red Riding Hood (Into the Woods), Carrie White (Carrie), Narrator/Ensemble (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Natalie Goodman (Next to Normal). Lester also plays the role of Ashlyn Caswell in the Disney+ musical series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, where her character also played Belle.
(Pictured on the right is Courtney Stapleton, who is currently playing the role in the West End production)
We’re Back! - A Dinosaur’s Story (1994) – Exploring the Past
TL;DR – A fascinating time capsule to the early 1990s, which might feel as far in the past as the dinosaurs featured.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Post-Credit Scene – There is no Post-Credit Scene.Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.
We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story Review –
I always like plugging in gaps in my knowledge when it comes to cinema, especially when it hits one of those topics…
Shortly after this past New Year's I made a crossover video of the forgotten other Spielberg "Dinosaur Movie" from 1993. We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Released months after Jurassic Park. I decided to make a crossover/mashup trailer parody of the film with the former beloved 1992-1995 PBS Middle School show Ghostwriter. Because the child actors Blaze A. Berdahl and Joey Shea were in both "Ghostwriter" and "We're Back". Blaze played Lenni (the middle school rap artist girl and GW team memeber) and Joey played a main antagonist role. In "We're Back", however Joey voiced a 2nd protagonist character named Louie (and is much nicer than his GW live apperence role). Miss Berdahl voiced the blue bird only seen at the begining and end of the movie. What also inspired me to do this was a trailer mashup crossover from 2011 with the Ghostwriter team along side "Thomas the Tank Engine" in Thomas and the Magic Railroad (original cut). Special thanks to YouTuber Robdeltonie for his original idea here: https://youtu.be/Nr473fgre94
Women are being diagnosed with ADHD at unprecedented rates. Here's why. (Kaelyn Lynch, National Geographic, Jan 16 2024)
"There are three types of ADHD: hyperactive, inattentive, and combined.
Girls and women tend to have the inattentive type, characterized by disorganization, forgetfulness, and struggles with starting and staying on task.
“They’re more likely to be seen as daydreamers, or lost in the clouds,” says Julia Schechter, co-director of Duke University’s Center for Women and Girls with ADHD.
Even hyperactive or combined-type girls often display their symptoms differently than boys—such as excessive talking, twirling their hair or constantly shaking their legs, and emotional reactivity.
“Their symptoms are just as impairing, but can fly under the radar,” Schechter says.
When clinical psychologist Kathleen Nadeau co-authored Understanding Girls with ADHD in 1999—one of the first real attempts to characterize how ADHD appeared in young girls—the research community still thought of ADHD almost exclusively as a “boy disorder.”
“We were laughed at during conferences,” says Nadeau, now recognized as an authority on women with ADHD.
“They said, ‘We’ve got these guys that are in the principal’s office three times a week, getting suspended and throwing spitballs. And you’ve got these quiet girls making honor roll grades and you think they have ADHD?’”
While that attitude has started to change, the overwhelming majority of research on ADHD has been done in boys and men, leading to the hyperactive, disruptive boy stereotype of ADHD.
Many girls with ADHD excel in school, though it comes at a price—they may get an A on a paper but stay up the night before writing it after being unable to focus for weeks.
“Girls work very hard to hide their problems. ‘I don’t want the teacher to be mad at me, I don’t want my parents to be mad at me,’” Nadeau says.
Experts call this masking, or how people socialized as female tend to find ways to compensate for their symptoms due to societal expectations.
“They have to put in at least twice the effort of other people if they’re determined to do well,” Nadeau says.
“You can’t let people know that you’re falling apart,” says Janna Moen, 31, a postdoctoral research scientist at Yale Center for Infection and Immunity with a PhD in neuroscience, who was diagnosed with ADHD in her late 20s.
Like many girls who go untreated, Moen scored top grades in school and went on to have a successful career, but years of masking her symptoms contributed to her developing mental health and self-esteem issues, and struggling in personal relationships.
Like Moen, who showed symptoms of ADHD from childhood, girls and women are more likely to have their symptoms mistaken for emotional or learning difficulties and are less likely to be referred for assessments.
Gender bias also may play a role: in two studies where teachers were presented with vignettes of children with ADHD, when the child’s names and pronouns were changed from female to male, they were more likely to be recommended for treatment and offered extra support.
All these misconceptions mean that girls with ADHD are being overlooked and untreated well into adulthood.
As David Goodman, the director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, points out, the ratio of boys to girls with ADHD in childhood is about three to one, while in adults, it’s about one to one, suggesting that ADHD prevalence is more equal across genders, with women being diagnosed later. (…)
Compared to their neurotypical peers, women with ADHD are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders.
They are also five times more likely to experience intimate partner violence, seven times more likely to have attempted suicide, and have higher rates of unplanned or early pregnancy.
One Danish study showed that the risk of premature death in women with ADHD was more than twice that of men with ADHD, potentially due to women being less likely to be diagnosed and receive treatment."
Aaron Bay-Schuck
Aaron Sorkin
Adam & Jackie Sandler
Adam Goodman
Adam Levine
Alan Grubman
Alex Aja
Alex Edelman
Alexandra Shiva
Ali Wentworth
Alison Statter
Allan Loeb
Alona Tal
Amy Chozick
Amy Pascal
Amy Schumer
Amy Sherman Palladino
Andrew Singer
Andy Cohen
Angela Robinson
Anthony Russo
Antonio Campos
Ari Dayan
Ari Greenburg
Arik Kneller
Aron Coleite
Ashley Levinson
Asif Satchu
Aubrey Plaza
Barbara Hershey
Barry Diller
Barry Levinson
Barry Rosenstein
Beau Flynn
Behati Prinsloo
Bella Thorne
Ben Stiller
Ben Turner
Ben Winston
Ben Younger
Billy Crystal
Blair Kohan
Bob Odenkirk
Bobbi Brown
Bobby Kotick
Brad Falchuk
Brad Slater
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Fischer
Brett Gelman
Brian Grazer
Bridget Everett
Brooke Shields
Bruna Papandrea
Cameron Curtis
Casey Neistat
Cazzie David
Charles Roven
Chelsea Handler
Chloe Fineman
Chris Fischer
Chris Jericho
Chris Rock
Christian Carino
Cindi Berger
Claire Coffee
Colleen Camp
Constance Wu
Courteney Cox
Craig Silverstein
Dame Maureen Lipman
Dan Aloni
Dan Rosenweig
Dana Goldberg
Dana Klein
Daniel Palladino
Danielle Bernstein
Danny Cohen
Danny Strong
Daphne Kastner
David Alan Grier
David Baddiel
David Bernad
David Chang
David Ellison
David Geffen
David Gilmour &
David Goodman
David Joseph
David Kohan
David Lowery
David Oyelowo
David Schwimmer
Dawn Porter
Dean Cain
Deborah Lee Furness
Deborah Snyder
Debra Messing
Diane Von Furstenberg
Donny Deutsch
Doug Liman
Douglas Chabbott
Eddy Kitsis
Edgar Ramirez
Eli Roth
Elisabeth Shue
Elizabeth Himelstein
Embeth Davidtz
Emma Seligman
Emmanuelle Chriqui
Eric Andre
Erik Feig
Erin Foster
Eugene Levy
Evan Jonigkeit
Evan Winiker
Ewan McGregor
Francis Benhamou
Francis Lawrence
Fred Raskin
Gabe Turner
Gail Berman
Gal Gadot
Gary Barber
Gene Stupinski
Genevieve Angelson
Gideon Raff
Gina Gershon
Grant Singer
Greg Berlanti
Guy Nattiv
Guy Oseary
Gwyneth Paltrow
Hannah Fidell
Hannah Graf
Harlan Coben
Harold Brown
Harvey Keitel
Henrietta Conrad
Henry Winkler
Holland Taylor
Howard Gordon
Iain Morris
Imran Ahmed
Inbar Lavi
Isla Fisher
Jack Black
Jackie Sandler
Jake Graf
Jake Kasdan
James Brolin
James Corden
Jamie Ray Newman
Jaron Varsano
Jason Biggs & Jenny Mollen Biggs
Jason Blum
Jason Fuchs
Jason Reitman
Jason Segel
Jason Sudeikis
JD Lifshitz
Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Rake
Jen Joel
Jeremy Piven
Jerry Seinfeld
Jesse Itzler
Jesse Plemons
Jesse Sisgold
Jessica Biel
Jessica Elbaum
Jessica Seinfeld
Jill Littman
Jimmy Carr
Jody Gerson
Joe Hipps
Joe Quinn
Joe Russo
Joe Tippett
Joel Fields
Joey King
John Landgraf
John Slattery
Jon Bernthal
Jon Glickman
Jon Hamm
Jon Liebman
Jonathan Baruch
Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Marc Sherman
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Steinberg
Jonathan Tisch
Jonathan Tropper
Jordan Peele
Josh Brolin
Josh Charles
Josh Goldstine
Josh Greenstein
Josh Grode
Judd Apatow
Judge Judy Sheindlin
Julia Garner
Julia Lester
Julianna Margulies
Julie Greenwald
Julie Rudd
Juliette Lewis
Justin Theroux
Justin Timberlake
Karen Pollock
Karlie Kloss
Katy Perry
Kelley Lynch
Kevin Kane
Kevin Zegers
Kirsten Dunst
Kitao Sakurai
KJ Steinberg
Kristen Schaal
Kristin Chenoweth
Lana Del Rey
Laura Dern
Laura Pradelska
Lauren Schuker Blum
Laurence Mark
Laurie David
Lea Michele
Lee Eisenberg
Leo Pearlman
Leslie Siebert
Liev Schreiber
Limor Gott
Lina Esco
Liz Garbus
Lizanne Rosenstein
Lizzie Tisch
Lorraine Schwartz
Lynn Harris
Lyor Cohen
Madonna
Mandana Dayani
Mara Buxbaum
Marc Webb
Marco Perego
Maria Dizzia
Mark Feuerstein
Mark Foster
Mark Scheinberg
Mark Shedletsky
Martin Short
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mathew Rosengart
Matt Lucas
Matt Miller
Matthew Bronfman
Matthew Hiltzik
Matthew Weiner
Matti Leshem
Max Mutchnik
Maya Lasry
Meaghan Oppenheimer
Melissa Zukerman
Michael Aloni
Michael Ellenberg
Michael Green
Michael Rapino
Michael Rappaport
Michael Weber
Michelle Williams
Mike Medavoy
Mila Kunis
Mimi Leder
Modi Wiczyk
Molly Shannon
Nancy Josephson
Natasha Leggero
Neil Blair
Neil Druckmann
Nicola Peltz
Nicole Avant
Nina Jacobson
Noa Kirel
Noa Tishby
Noah Oppenheim
Noah Schnapp
Noreena Hertz
Odeya Rush
Olivia Wilde
Oran Zegman
Orlando Bloom
Pasha Kovalev
Pattie LuPone
Paul & Julie Rudd
Paul Haas
Paul Pflug
Peter Traugott
Polly Sampson
Rachel Riley
Rafi Marmor
Ram Bergman
Raphael Margulies
Rebecca Angelo
Rebecca Mall
Regina Spektor
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Rich Statter
Richard Jenkins
Richard Kind
Rick Hoffman
Rick Rosen
Rita Ora
Rob Rinder
Robert Newman
Roger Birnbaum
Roger Green
Rosie O’Donnell
Ross Duffer
Ryan Feldman
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sam Levinson
Sam Trammell
Sara Foster
Sarah Baker
Sarah Bremner
Sarah Cooper
Sarah Paulson
Sarah Treem
Scott Braun
Scott Braun
Scott Neustadter
Scott Tenley
Sean Combs
Seth Meyers
Seth Oster
Shannon Watts
Shari Redstone
Sharon Jackson
Sharon Stone
Shauna Perlman
Shawn Levy
Sheila Nevins
Shira Haas
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Tikhman
Skylar Astin
Stacey Snider
Stephen Fry
Steve Agee
Steve Rifkind
Sting & Trudie Styler
Susanna Felleman
Susie Arons
Taika Waititi
Thomas Kail
Tiffany Haddish
Todd Lieberman
Todd Moscowitz
Todd Waldman
Tom Freston
Tom Werner
Tomer Capone
Tracy Ann Oberman
Trudie Styler
Tyler James Williams
Tyler Perry
Vanessa Bayer
Veronica Grazer
Veronica Smiley
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Will Ferrell
Will Graham
Yamanieka Saunders
Yariv Milchan
Ynon Kreiz
Zack Snyder
Zoe Saldana
Zoey Deutch
Zosia Mamet
This copy of James Joyce’s, Dubliners, with introduction by American academic Thomas Flanagan and photogravures by Irish artist Robert Ballagh (b.1943), was published in 1986 by the Limited Editions Club (LEC), New York, in an edition of one thousand copies signed by Flanagan and Ballagh. It was in 1905 that Joyce first took his manuscript to a publisher, although he had a lot of difficulty finding someone to print his book. After many rejections a publisher accepted but demanded changes, resulting in the termination of their agreement. This drama continued for years until the book was finally published in 1914 by Grant Richards Ltd., London.
Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories that is a portrait of Dublin during a time when Irish nationalism was at its height. Joyce used his own family, friends, and acquaintances to depict the people of Dublin “in all their uniqueness, their generosity, and love of music, as well as their moral confusion and psychic paralysis” (LEC Letter number 547). This psychic and moral paralysis stems from the long history of Ireland’s subordination to British rule.
Robert Ballagh was born and raised in Dublin and shares Joyce’s fascination with his city. His six photogravures express the sense of isolation and paralysis that exists within the stories. They are velvety and still, and rest alone in the center of the page. They themselves are isolated by the many pages of text that exist between it and the next image.
The type design also illustrates a sense of isolation, with each short story beginning with a title in a single line on the right resting in the expanse of an empty page spread, and after turning the page, another blank page, and opposite to it the beginning of the text with no header, but space for one.
The type was printed at Wild Carrot Letterpress and Heritage Printers. The text was set in Monotype Scotch by Dan Carr and Julia Ferrari at Golgonooza Letter Foundry. Benjamin Schiff, son of then LEC owner Sidney Schiff, designed the book. The photogravure plates were made by Jon Goodman and printed by Bruce Chandler, Peter Pettengill, Catherine Mosely and Greta Lintvedt. The paper was made at Cartiere Enrico Magnani. The book was hand sewn and bound at the Jovonis Bookbindery in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Our copy is a gift form our friend Jerry Buff.
Painted in the illusionistic technique of trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye),” The Printseller depicts a heavily-bearded shopkeeper cradling a small statuette of Cupid. The display case before him contains a variety of objects, including prints, books, coins in a porcelain dish, a magnifying glass, a wineglass, a strand of pearls and a metal tankard. Many of the prints are reproductions of famous paintings that would have been familiar to Walter Goodman’s audience of the early 1880s.
A string of small photographs called cartes-de-visites stretches across the display case. These small photographic portraits, sized to mount on a visiting card, became extremely popular; a craze developed for collecting the cartes of celebrities as well as family and friends. Here, each represents a famous Victorian painter of Goodman’s time, including John Everett Millais, Rosa Bonheur, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema (fourth, sixth, and ninth from the left, respectively). A larger photographic portrait of the famous art critic John Ruskin is located in the center directly below the string of cartes.
Although relatively unknown, Walter Goodman was an interesting and practiced artist with a varied career as a portraitist, illustrator and writer. Of Jewish heritage, he was the son of portraitist Julia Salaman Goodman. He was widely traveled and an intimate member of London’s theatrical society. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. (source)
sleepy attempts to recall the premise/plot of some of the books she read in high school
The Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn
premise: there's a girl who people tell their secrets to
plot: I don't remember, guess I should reread it
Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey
premise: there's a girl who was born with one finger as a dragon claw and people think she's cursed or something!
plot: she has to go learn about being part dragon? guess I should reread it
The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey
premise: it's a retelling of 1001 nights
plot: this girl inherited her mother's ability to read stories in cloth and it's a retelling of 1001 nights, I am still going to reread it
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
premise: this girl named Aza is considered to be ugly and beauty in in the eye of the beholder
plot: she strikes up a friendship with a prince, I think, and there are magic shenanigans? the writing style is delightful and smart, looking forward to rereading it
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
premise: it's a really short iliad retelling
plot: it's a really short iliad retelling
The Light of the Oracle by Victoria Hanley
premise: there's a girl who can talk to birds? I think?
plot: no idea, got to reread it
Ever by Gail Carson Levine
premise: this girl falls in love with an immortal and can only be with him if she becomes immortal by passing some trials
plot: she goes through the trials (this book was the first time I read something in alternating first person povs, every other chapter no less)
Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass, Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George
premise: fairytale retellings, 12 dancing princesses, cinderella, and red riding hood respectively
plot: in midnight ball, the guy who figures it out KNITS. we stan. in glass, it's a foot, not a slipper. I don't remember the twist in silver woods.
The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
premise: magic is controlled by songs and people can only use one type/sing one type of song. except the mc, who can!
plot: they have to go on a quest and I do not remember any of the details.
The Naming by Alison Croggon
premise: magic users are called bards and there's this guy the winter king who is ruining the land or whatever and our main gal is plucked from obscurity to become a bard.
plot: she learns to be a bard and there is SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING. SO MUCH LORE. SO MUCH HEFT. story? don't really remember.
Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan
premise: probably the only time I ever felt like faeries were presented as genuinely intimidating creatures, but I'm wondering if that effect will remain upon my reread
plot: I assume there were wars
Eon by Alison Goodman
premise: girl pretends to be a boy to train to be some kind of warrior or magic user, can't remember
plot: shenanigans ensue? gotta reread
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
premise: there are killer unicorns
plot: girl trains to kill the killer unicorns, I think
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
premise: a young girl is a thief in I think Victorian London
plot: there's a mystery surrounding a diamond
Rowan Hood: Outlaw Girl of Sherwood by Nancy Springer
premise: young girl version of Robin Hood, obvi
plot: adventures in Sherwood forest
The Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
premise: young boy trains to be a ranger
plot: we fall in love with the guy who trains Wil to be a ranger
The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas
premise: a boy didn't intend to steal any magic?
plot: but that's what happened?
Elissa's Quest by Erica Verrillo
premise: girl discovers she has magic, is thrust into a world beyond her ken
plot: suddenly she's really important and must go questing and learn magic and stuff (I remember loving the first two of the trilogy and then being slightly letdown by the ending of the last one)
The Books of Umber: Happenstance Found by P.W. Catanese
premise: I don't remember
plot: really don't remember
this year I decided to start collecting the books I remember loving and checking out from the library more than once. I hope next year I actually read them.
Blog Tour & Arc Review: The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman
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Publication Date: May 30, 2023
Welcome to the Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies book tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog tour post is also posted on my Wordpress book review blog Whimsical Dragonette.)
Synopsis:
A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an ‘old maid’ to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan.
Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need—society be damned! And so begins the beguiling secret life and adventures of the Colebrook twins.
Author Bio:
Alison Goodman is the New York Times bestselling author of Eon and Eona and The Dark Days Club series. Learn more online at www.alisongoodman.com.au/
Author photo credit: Tania Jovanovic
My Rating: ★★★★★
*My Review, Favorite Quotes, and Non-Exclusive Excerpt below the cut.
My Review:
This was utterly delightful. I love a good regency adventure, especially with a feminist bent and a woman who defies societal norms to solve crimes and right wrongs. What I did not realize I was missing, however, was for said society-norm-defying-women to be a pair of 42-year-old spinster sisters. It was delicious.
I was immediately struck, upon starting, with how familiar the storytelling felt and how appropriate it seemed for someone setting out to solve mysteries. It reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes stories with the first-person narration of Dr. Watson. In this case we have the first-person narration of Lady Augusta Colebrook, using a similar dry and slightly amused tone. It also reminds me of the narration of the Enola Holmes novels (which are likely based on those about Sherlock).
I like that the mysteries Lady Augusta elects to solve and the crimes she seeks to address all involve women being wronged, from the initial retrieval of a packet of incriminating letters to the final adventure of rescuing the inhabitants of a brutal madhouse. Each is a step farther along the path and take her a step away from the 'neither seen nor heard' proper lady her brother wishes to force her to be.
Her relationship with her sister was wonderful (despite the less-than-likely entire conversations held entirely in gestures -- alongside the multi-sentence exchanges those gestures are purported to represent). Lady Julia is suffering from breast cancer (a disease which killed their mother and aunt) and is much more concerned with propriety than her sister, but she gamely shows up for Gus again and again, lending her skills to their rescue attempts and occasionally threatening the villains at gunpoint. The love and trust between the sisters really shines.
The disgraced Lord Evan - escaped convict, horse thief, and charming rogue - makes a wonderful partner in crime for Gus and it quickly becomes clear that he is her perfect match. I loved seeing them work together from the beginning and how their schemes grew more complicated each time but often relied on standing together and winging it moment to moment.
The villains in this are truly villainous and the misogyny and brutality against women of all ages and statuses are hard to stomach. From brothel to madhouse, the many, many ways that men have invented to be cruel to women are on display. It is hard to read in places and each encounter stokes Gus' (and the reader's) righteous fury.
Things worked out just a little too easily in some of the later more complicated schemes, but never enough that it took me out of the story.
I'm glad that Julia gets a love interest by the end and doesn't have to sink back into mourning for her deceased fiance forever, and greatly enjoyed how that happened and how Julia seems much more in control of the situation.
I can't wait for more of Gus and Julia and Lord Evan and Kent. It's clear by the end of this that their story is only beginning which makes me very happy what with how much I enjoyed this one.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an early copy for review.
Favorite Quotes:
“Is he truly senseless? Can we be sure?” It occurred to me that I had been checking people’s vitals far too often in the past few hours.
---
“So, finis,” I said as the front door closed.
“Not at all,” Julia said. “He will be back.”
“What makes you think that?”
She smiled. “Because he did not need to come this time.”
Non-Exclusive Excerpt:
"We should have worn half boots," I said. "I can feel every pebble through my slippers."
"One cannot wear half boots with full dress," Julia said firmly. "Even in circumstances of duress."
I stifled a smile. My sister's sense of style and occasion was always impeccable, and rather too easy to poke.
Julia glanced sideways at me. "Oh, very funny. Next you'll be suggesting we wear unmentionables."
"If only we could," I said. "Breeches would be far more convenient than silk gowns."
"How would you know?" Julia demanded. "Heavens, Gus, you haven't actually donned Father's clothing, have you?"
She knew I had kept some of our father's clothes after his death; he and I had been much the same height and wiry build. By all rights, the clothes belonged to our brother on his succession to the title-as all our father's property did-but I had taken them, anyway. A connection to him and a memento mori of sorts.
"Of course not. I am only surmising."
Julia settled back against my arm. "To even try them would be ghoulish." She nudged me gently and angled her sweet smile up at me. "Even so, you would look rather dashing in, say, a hussars uniform. You have the commanding height for it, and the gold trim would match your hair."
I snorted. Julia was, as ever, being too loyal. My brown hair did not even approach gold-in fact, it now had streaks of silver-and my five foot nine inches had so far in my life proved to be more awkward than commanding. She, on the other hand, had been blessed with the Colebrook chestnut hair, as yet untouched by age, and stood at a more dainty five foot two inches.
When we were children I had once cried because we were not identical. Our father had taken me aside and told me that he found such duplications unsettling and he was well satisfied with his two mismatched girls. He had been a good father and a better man. Yet in the eyes of society, his sordid death atop a rookery whore five years ago had become the sum of him.
It had nearly tainted my sister and me, too, for I had recklessly gone to the hovel to retrieve my father-I could not bear to think of his body gawped at by the masses, or as a source of their sport. As fate would have it, I was seen at the brothel. An unmarried woman of breeding should not even know about such places, let alone debase herself by entering one and speaking to the inhabitants. I became the latest on-dit and it was only the staunch support of our most influential friends that silenced the scandalmongers and returned us to the invitation lists.
A small group of middlings-the women with shawls clasped over dimity gowns and the men in belcher neckerchiefs and sober wools-clustered around a singer at the side of the path. The woman's plaintive ballad turned Julia's head as we passed.
"'The Fairy Song,'" she said. "One of Robert's favorites."
I quickened our pace past the memory; fate seemed to be conspiring against me.
We attracted a few glances as we walked toward the gloomy entrance to the Dark Walk, mainly from women on the arms of their spouses, their thoughts in the tight pinch of their mouths.
"Maybe we should have brought Samuel and Albert," Julia whispered. She had seen the matronly judgment too.
"Charlotte does not want our footmen knowing her business," I said. "Besides, we are not quivering girls in our first season. We do not need to be chaperoned all the time."
"Do you remember the code we girls made up to warn each other about the men in our circle?" Julia asked. "The code based on these gardens."
"Vaguely." I searched my memory. "Let me see: a Grand Walk was a pompous bore, a Supper Box was a fortune hunter . . ."
"And a Dark Walk was the reddest of red flags," Julia said. "Totally untrustworthy, never be alone with him. It was based on all those awful attacks that happened in the Dark Walk at the time. Do you recall?"
I did-respectable young girls pulled off the path and assaulted in the worst way.
"That was more than twenty years ago, my dear. We are women of forty-two now, well able to look after ourselves."
"That is not what Duffy would say."
Indeed, our brother, the Earl of Duffield, would be horrified to know we had gone to Vauxhall Gardens on our own, let alone braved the lewd reputation of the Dark Walk.
"Duffy would have us forever hunched over embroidery or taking tea with every mama who saw her daughter as the new Lady Duffield."
"True," Julia said, "but you are so vehement only because you know this is beyond the pale. Not to mention dangerous."
I did not meet her eye. My sister knew me too well.
"Well, we are here, anyway," I said, indicating the Dark Walk to our right.
Huge gnarly oaks lined either side of the path, their overhanging branches almost meeting in the middle to make a shadowy tunnel of foliage. One lamp lit the entrance but I could see no other light farther along the path. Nor any other person.
"It lives up to its name," Julia said.
We both considered its impenetrable depths.
"Should we do as Duffy would want and turn back?" I asked.
"I'd rather wear dimity to the opera," Julia said and pulled me onward.
I knew my sister just as well as she knew me.
It's December, and that means I get to be self-indulgent and give myself gifts, mainly the gift of looking at actors I like.
I give you my series of self-indulgence, Granite Hills (1990):
~~💀💀~~
Set in 1980 in the fictional town of Mudslide, Wisconsin, mainly at the Granite Hills university. This cast will be a mix of actors who would and wouldn't be available at the time.
The Show's Cast Includes:
Alfred Molina as Angel Ramon Vega [Age: 24]
Anjelica Huston as Sandy Cherry Lawson [Age: 26]
Billy Connolly as Professor Darwin Derryl Rigby [Age: 40]
Billy Crystal as Jethro Mephisto Butcher [Age: 25]
Brendan Fraser as Dallas Nathaniel Gray [Age: 23]
Carrie Fisher as Veronica Beverly Chambers [Age: 21]
Cary Elwes as Easton Markos White [Age: 27]
Chris Barrie as Douglass Wilfred Bernard [Age: 20]
Christina Applegate as Storm Hekla Jóhannsson [Age: 18]
Christopher Walken as Professor Karl Cai Lowell [Age: 40]
Craig Charles as Chuck Vance Sheppard [Age: 21]
Dan Aykroyd as Cesar Clay Leon [Age: 23]
Danny John-Jules as Quentin Kingston Hollister [Age: 21]
Daryl Hannah as Bernadette Daphne Jordan [Age: 24]
Diane Lane as Saffron Elouise Mason [Age: 19]
Fran Drescher as Monique Joanne Curtis [Age: 22]
Geena Davis as Erin Kermit Cantrell [Age: 28]
Gunnar Hansen as Thor Hjörtur Jóhannsson [Age: 48]
Harold Ramis as Edmund Morgan Blackburn [Age: 29]
Jack Black as Odin Hrafn Jóhannsson [Age: 21]
Jeff Bridges as Professor Kennedy Troy Gill [Age: 40]
Joe Pesci as Professor Jeremiah Emmit Jekyll [Age: 40]
John Belushi as Julian Noel Hood [Age: 25]
John Candy as Dale Randall Newman [Age: 26]
John Cusack as Andrew Simon Garfield [Age: 23]
John Goodman as Cyrus Lars Nielsen [Age: 27]
John Leguizamo as Alijah Mrlon Cross [Age: 29}
Judd Nelson as Colton Kenelm Coy [Age: 19]
Katey Sagal as Ramona Adrienne Dunn [Age: 25]
Kevin Bacon as Brad Nathan Hardy [Age: 25]
Kiefer Sutherland as Trenton Homer Abbey [Age: 21]
Luis Guzmán as Jaxxon Garrett Flores [Age: 29]
Mandy Patinkin as Elishua Saul Zebedaios [Age: 28]
Matt Dillon as Dennis Waylon Marley [Age: 20]
Matthew Lillard as Alexander Buddy Jones [Age: 19]
Oliver Platt as Ruben Manuel Valdez [Age: 22]
O'Shea Jackson (Sr.) as Tyrese Jordan Maxwell [Age: 18]
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Parris Hayes Grant [Age: 19]
Raul Julia as Professor Marcel Gomez Agua [Age: 40]
Supporters of #NoHostageLeftBehind Open Letter to Joe Biden - Part 1/2
The letter consists of lies, no mention of Palestinian genocides, and a call for ceasefire.
Read the full letter:
Dear President Biden,
We are heartened by Friday's release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan [Raanan] and by today's release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity.
But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered—women raped, families burned alive, and infants beheaded.
Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group's founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.
We all want the same thing: Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. Freedom from the brutal violence spread by Hamas. And most urgently, in this moment, freedom for the hostages.
We urge everyone to not rest until all hostages are released. No hostage can be left behind. Whether American, Argentinian, Australian, Azerbaijani, Brazilian, British, Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Eritrean, Filipino, French, German, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, Mexican, Panamanian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, South African, Spanish, Sri Lankan, Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbekistani or otherwise, we need to bring them home.
hiiiii do u know any books where the ocean is a heavy presence? not just a setting but rather a theme in the book? ive read the seas by samantha hunt & summer of salt and those r good but i want more emphasis on ocean. i just really love aquatic life/the sea in general and would love some fiction books that surround it :3 sry if this is a weird question, ty!!!
it's not weird! here are some books where bodies of water – seas, oceans, lakes, rivers, and the occasional pond – are featured heavily
feel free to add, people!
middle grade
sabriel by garth nix
deep wizardry by diane duane
the wedding planner's daughter by coleen murtagh paratore
paola santiago and the river of tears by tehlor mejia
the girl from the sea by molly knox ostertag
greenwitch by susan cooper
the coming storm by regina m hansen
young adult
the dark tide by alicia jasinska
the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater
a far wilder magic by allison saft
lakelore by anna-marie mclemore
the wicked deep by shea ernshaw
impossible by nancy werlin
monsters born and made by tanvi berwah
the last true poets of the sea by julia drake
adult
the lake of dead languages by carol goodman
into the blue by pene henson
the house in the cerulean sea by tj klune
the ten thousand doors of january by alix e harrow
the starless sea by erin morgenstern (the sea is made of honey so it counts!!!)