MARIAN. The second epoch of The Woman in White is the Marian Halcombe Show. Not coincidentally, the second epoch of The Woman in White is by far the best of the epochs. It begins shortly after Laura’s marriage to Sir Percival Glyde, when Marian is waiting to welcome her sister to their new home at Sir Percival’s estate, Blackwater. Even before Laura and Sir Percival come back from their awkward honeymoon, it is clear that there is nefariousness afoot. When Laura does get home, she refuses to talk about how Sir Percival has been acting because marital confidence, I guess?…
18 CommentsCategory: Favored authors
Emma Readalong! Part Two: Frank Churchill is the worst
Published 8 Feb 2014
by
Gin Jenny
Ah, Frank Churchill. If I were forced to voice an area of dissatisfaction with Clueless (which, why would I ever be?), it would be that some of the characters in Emma who delight me with their dreadfulness are not adequately represented in Clueless. So much of Emma’s character in the books is informed by her trying to avoid being bored. She’s not as attentive to the Bates ladies as she ought to be because of how DAMN BORING they are: “Thank you. You are very kind. Yes, next week. Every body is so surprized; and every body says the same…
13 CommentsReview: Sister Citizen, Melissa Harris-Perry
Published 29 Jan 2014
by
Gin Jenny
I am interested in the ways people are affected by representations of race, gender, sexuality, etc., in the media. It seems like Oscar Wilde was right all along: Life reflects art. If you watch gay people on TV you are more likely to want them to get married. And Melissa Harris-Perry is a feminist whose writing and thinking I like quite a bit. So when she writes a book about representations of black women in American culture, I’m obviously there. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) is about the stereotypes that…
19 CommentsReview: The Charioteer, Mary Renault (plus, a giveaway)
Published 27 Sep 2013
by
Gin Jenny
Since nobody loves this book (and when I say “nobody loves this book” I want you to understand that I really mean “Mumsy does not love this book and it breaks my heart”), I have decided to try once again to explain what I love so much about it. The Charioteer deals with a conflict of values, my favorite kind of conflict to read about. The three main characters, Laurie and Ralph and Andrew, are gay men living in British army hospitals in the 1940s: Laurie and Ralph because injuries prevent them returning to battle, and Andrew as an orderly…
21 CommentsReview: The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
Published 25 Sep 2013
by
Gin Jenny
Lucky you, bloggy friends! Two guest reviews by Mumsy in such a short time! I was expecting Jenny to start Mary Renault Week by reviewing The Charioteer, a novel that (as Jenny correctly notes) only Jenny loves. And then I would have started my review by saying that Mary Renault is actually at her best when she is writing about ancient Greece, about which she appears to know Everything. (And because I find it difficult to switch tracks, I have now said just that.) The Mask of Apollo is somewhat different from most of Renault’s novels in that it features…
8 CommentsReview: The Persian Boy, Mary Renault
Published 23 Sep 2013
by
Gin Jenny
For lo, this shall be Mary Renault Week on the blog! In case you missed hearing about this (not that I’ve been shrieking loudly about it or anything), Mary Renault’s books have been released in ebook format at last! And are now available for purchase wherever ebooks are sold! Thus, this week I have decreed shall be the week in which I post only about Mary Renault. If you post about her too please tell me so in the comments and I’ll add links to my posts. Today I am reviewing The Persian Boy; on Wednesday my lovely Mum will…
13 CommentsReview: Night Film, Marisha Pessl
Published 20 Sep 2013
by
Gin Jenny
Hurrah, I have convinced my beautiful and intelligent mother to write a guest post for me on Marisha Pessl’s new book Night Film. Whiskey Jenny and I discussed it on the podcast, and now you may also hear a third view, that of my mumsy. This review is certified spoiler-free. This is what Marisha Pessl’s new novel Night Film is like: It’s like walking into your living room to find a live kangaroo in there. It’s unexpected, it’s pretty scary, it’s extremely lively and very uninhibited; it feels dangerous and destructive, and at the same time, almost comically absurd. …
20 CommentsMore Than This, Patrick Ness
Published 9 Sep 2013
by
Gin Jenny
PATRICK NESS PATRICK NESS. I love me some Patrick Ness, and here is his brand-new book coming out tomorrow so PLACE YOUR ORDERS because Patrick Ness is amazing. The beginning: A boy called Seth drowns. When he wakes up (from death), he is at the house in England where, through some unspecified but terrible fault of Seth’s, an unspecified but terrible Event with lasting neurological consequences befell his younger brother Owen. Seth has not lived in England for years; his family lives in America now, and he goes to an American school and has American friends. But here he is…
19 CommentsReview: Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published 19 Aug 2013
by
Gin Jenny
My coworker Baby B started reading Half of a Yellow Sun, our current work book club book, before anyone else did, and she spoke of it with crazy-eyed love of the sort I have previously only seen in her with reference to the creative team behind Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. In case you do not know, Half of a Yellow Sun (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) is a novel about four characters living in Nigeria before and during the Biafran War. The beginning: There are three point-of-view characters, in alternating chapters: Ugwu, a house servant for Odenigbo, a professor…
21 CommentsReview: The Night Flower, Sarah Stovell
Published 9 Aug 2013
by
Gin Jenny
Way long ago (well, in 2010), I read Sarah Stovell’s first novel Mothernight. Although I thought it went a teensy bit overboard on the misfortune, I thought Stovell’s writing was absolutely gorgeous, and I wanted to read some of her sentences fifteen times. So when the publisher of her second book (at last!), Night Flower, emailed to ask if I wanted to participate in a blog tour, I jumped at the chance (of course). The beginning: Ah Sarah Stovell. The way she won my heart in the first place was the way she wrote about time in Mothernight. She begins…
12 Comments