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Author: Jenny Hamilton

Review: The Cranes Dance, Meg Howrey

BALLET BOOKS, YOU GUYS. Have I told you before how I will read any book set in the world of ballet? Even if everyone says it’s idiotic? This is partly because I love ballet books, and partly because, for reasons passing (my) understanding, there just aren’t that many ballet books out there. Yet my forays into the Alex Awards continue to yield glorious dividends, for a past Alex Award winner was Meg Howrey’s The Cranes Dance, a book about the older of two sisters who dance in a prestigious New York company. Or rather, the only of two sisters who…

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Not a dumb American: Namibia edition

Have I told you about my project to read one good history about every African country? It is a project I have had in mind for a while, and I started it this year with my beloved Namibia. Because here is the thing about Namibia: We have been underappreciating it. Sort of a lot. Let’s start with the basics real real quick. This is Namibia: As you can see, it is the country north of South Africa on the west coast of the continent. It was colonized by the Germans, and then after World War I when German colonial holdings were being divvied…

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Sunbolt, Intisar Khanani

Note: I received a copy of Sunbolt from the publisher, through NetGalley, for review consideration. So all the bloggers have been on and on about the wonders of Intisar Khanani, and I finally got the chance to read one of her books (thanks, NetGalley!). Sunbolt is the novella beginning of a new series, about a street thief named Hitomi who’s part of a resistance force against the oppressive sultanate, and who secretly is the daughter of two (deceased) mages and thus a fairly powerful mage in her own right. I’d have already been in at street thief in a non-Europeanish…

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Who-all’s being brilliant on the internet: A links round-up

On “trash food,” class, and the South. The short history of spoiler warnings. You should just assume that I’m going to link to everything Elizabeth Minkel ever writes. Here she is talking about the gendered reaction to responses to Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction vs. responses to Jeremy Clarkson’s departure from Top Gear. Foz Meadows, being typically fascinating about the way gifs are changing critical discourse. She does seem to think that academic journals are profit-making beasts. Are they? I do not know. I have only worked on the books and online side of academic publishing, where we are…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.38: The Royal We and a Royalty-and-Rebels Game

Today, as a pairing to our earlier podcast about books that intimidate us, we’re talking about topics that intimidate us. Whiskey Jenny can’t abide eye stuff, I can’t read anything about floods–share yours in the comments! You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 38 Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating!…

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The three main problems I had with Laura Kipnis’s essays on men

On a process level, Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation is a successful essay collection. Kipnis is a fluid writer with an eye for the mot juste; she varies her sentence structures with grace; nothing she writes ever feels forced. If that sounds like faint praise, it’s because (alas) I have a lot of problems with the sentiments Kipnis expresses in her elegant prose. Here are the main three: 1) So. Much. Freud. Lady, you are aware that further work has been done in psychology since the mid-twentieth century? Kipnis’s references to Freud, Oedipal complexes, and psychosexual development are so numerous they would make an excellent drinking game condition, an…

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Rounding up some more comics

It’s time again for a round-up of my comics reading! So many recommendations on this earth! Through the Woods, Emily Carroll Yeah, I can only assume that Emily Carroll knows me personally and designed Through the Woods to cater to my interests. It is a collection of some hella creepy stories about living near a forest. Girls go into the forest, and they come out different, or they don’t come out at all. This may be very shallow of me, but I love graphic novels where the lettering looks like proper handwriting. Though Saga has many charms, an early and prominent draw for me was…

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The Villette Readalong Staggers to Its Inevitably Irritating Conclusion

Yep, I screwed up the reading last weekend. I can only assumed I was blinded by rage when I approached the chapter numbers. Dr. John and Paulina did get engaged last time, and I just didn’t read that far. Whatever, you two. The fact that Dr. John pays court to Paulina by talking about how it felt when six-year-old her touched his cheek is yet another more way in which Victorians in general and Charlotte Bronte in particular are just SO FUCKING WEIRD. So M. Paul announces he’s leaving, and Lucy mopes around because he’s been really nice to her lately,…

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Links for a Thursday

Can I brag for a quick sec? This week I got renters insurance for the first time ever. BOOM. ADULTING. Though, I hope the hurricanes of the world won’t take this as permission to bring around a cloud to rain on my parade. If the internet were a high school. I like the BuzzFeed one the best. Also keep your eyes peeled for a cameo by the Lizzie Bennet Diaries‘s own William Darcy. Scott Tobias wrote an article called The Church of Scientology is Bad at Twitter, which is one of many reasons I cherish the internet. Trevor Noah is…

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The Villette Readalong Insults Paulina

We are nearly done with Villette, and I will go ahead and say right now that it’s not Charlotte Bronte’s best work. And I am not just saying that because I’m mad that Lu Paul turned out to be such a dud! It’s also that Villette lacks both the focus and the craziness that make Jane Eyre such a treat. Luckily this was a short reading section, and I didn’t have that much time to get mad at Lucy. “Not that much time,” however, does not equal “no time.” Lucy goes out to do some errands for M. Beck but…

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