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Author: Jenny Hamilton

#BBAW: Introduce Yourself!

The time has come! The time is now! After a few years of lying fallow, Book Blogger Appreciation Week has returned! Huge, huge thanks to my co-hosts Heather, Andi, and Ana, and thanks to everyone who’s participating. Day 1: Introduce yourself by telling us about five books that represent you as a person or your interests/lifestyle. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte I’m starting with an unoriginal one, I know! But Jane Eyre was the first book where I ever read the end before I read the middle. It gave me a taste for romance, for gothic novels, for crazypants plots where…

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NB, Tulum: A Links Round-Up

Happy Friday, everyone! I have had a stupid week and am psyched for it to be over! So here are some links, as ever, for your delectation and delight. First and most importantly, Book Blogger Appreciation Week is NEXT WEEK. I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat on Tuesday at 9 PM EST, and the blogosphere at large will be squeeing about our love for each other all week long. Don’t miss it. I admit this has nothing to do with anything, but Caity Weaver’s GQ profile of Justin Bieber is magic. It’s unsettling to share a personal story, or ask…

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The #HamAlong Is Never Gon’ Be President Now

Poor old George Washington! With his strongest and cleverest ally gone from the cabinet, this section of the readalong finds him struggling to find competent people to fill political posts, while the southern motherfucking democratic republicans roundly abuse him all over the press. He keeps writing pitiful letters to Hamilton to be like And in actually the nicest gesture I have so far encountered in this readalong, Washington sends Eliza and Alexander a supportive gift during the Reynolds Pamphlet hullabaloo, with a note that says this: I pray you to present my best wishes, in which Mrs. Washington joins me,…

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Jessica Jones, Episode 11: AKA I’ve Got the Blues

And now, a conundrum. AKA I’ve Got the Blues is an episode that focuses on Jessica and Trish’s relationship but also features a whole lot of Evil Simpson (a plotline that, as I mentioned in my last recap, really bugs me) and doesn’t move the Kilgrave needle forward hardly at all. So what wins out: The “I heart female friendship” Jenny or the “get a damn move on with the plot already” Jenny? Let me tell you what tipped the balance. Patricia. Come on. Jessica just got hit by a truck. When someone is in great pain and sadness, you…

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The #HamAlong Lets Its Ideals Blind it to Reality

NOW we have attained the kind of rap-battle controversy that I was expecting from Ron Chernow’s Hamilton. The lines are drawn, the gloves are off, and A. Ham is wading into battle against prettttttty much every other Founding Father. Which means that it’s time for a new #HamAlong feature I shall call Which Founding Father Is Being the Worst This Week? Which Founding Father Is Being the Worst This Week? I’m going to have to say Monroe. This fuckin’ guy. When some guys in the federal government got wind of Hamilton’s history of giving money to James Reynolds (they heard…

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What Is Veiling?, Sahar Amer

I try, in general, to cast a critical eye upon ideas and information and opinions, and sometimes I am more successful at this and other times less successful. For genres of things where Societal Bullshit has often been at play in the past, I try to be extra skeptical about that thing. As a totally inconsequential example, I know that the Bachelor manipulates my views of all the women through editing; and I maintain a particular skepticism of the edits that people of color receive. (The, like, three that have ever been on that show.) Similarly, I have decided upon…

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Jessica Jones, Episode 10: AKA 1000 Cuts

In the cage room that is now a super-gross murder scene, AKA 1000 Cuts picks up right where AKA Sin Bin left off. Kilgrave compels Jeri to drive him to medical care, while Jessica rallies her remaining allies: Trish, Clemons, and a still-compelled Albert. Clemons takes over like a boss, ordering Trish not to call an ambulance until he can get some guys he trusts on the scene.1 Meanwhile, Jessica will go in pursuit of Kilgrave, and Trish will take Albert to a hotel where they can start working on a vaccine: Kilgrave’s power, Albert reveals, is a virus, and…

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The #HamAlong’s Gotta Keep the American Promise

So. Much. Finance. Talk. I trust that the #HamAlong will experience a sharp upward turn in action in the subsequent chapters, and can only conclude that the schedule for this week allotted a comparatively lowish number of pages to make up for how heavily taxy this section is. One thing I learned that tied into knowledge I already possessed was that Britain had, at this time, something like a monopoly on textile production. A. Ham wanted to diversify American business, rather than continuing to depend on only agriculture, so he spent a lot of time learning about textiles and how…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.54: Spring Book Preview and The Hatening (Part 1)

The Hatening commenceth! Spoilers: Whiskey Jenny did an incredible job choosing a book that I would, and did, hate. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 54 Books discussed (in order of appearance) Winter Books! Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie Winter, Marissa Meyer The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness illustrated Harry Potter! City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende Ripper, Isabel Allende Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta Thirteen Ways of Looking,…

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Jessica Jones, Episode 9: AKA Sin Bin

After the mesmerizing two-hander episode from last week, AKA Sin Bin is a bit of a letdown. It’s a perfectly serviceable piece of television in that it gets Jessica and Kilgrave from point A (he is captured) to point B (he is freed) without too much of the lagging and lying around that plague this show. (Jessica Jones would have benefited by being ten episodes, rather than thirteen. Discuss.) Compared to last week, which was nothing but beautiful character notes for Jessica and Kilgrave, while also advancing the plot in wonderful and surprising ways, AKA Sin Bin sets character-building to…

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