On This Unworthy Scaffold concludes the Shadow Players trilogy, and I am remarkably sad to see it go. In part because of the pandemic, I feel like this trilogy has flown under the radar. I want to take this opportunity to put it on your radar as loudly as possible, because it’s a unique, strange, thoughtful, and anticolonialist fantasy YA series that explores themes of family, life and death, performance and reality, mental illness, and so so much more. The first one was For a Muse of Fire, if you are interested — plus now, all three of them are…
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Remember last week, when I dedicated several hours of my time to the important research question “Was Jane Austen making an anal sex joke?” That same energy has not carried forward into week two. I do not understand what’s so morally insupportable about putting on a little play with some neighborhood friends, even a slightly saucy play, and Fanny and Edmund are so annoying about it that I can’t be bothered researching it to find out. Fanny does not think the Bertrams and the Crawfords should put on a play; Edmund does not think the Bertrams and the Crawfords should…
1 CommentHappy Friday, beloved friends! I bring glad tidings of great joy: Leverage Redemption has released a trailer and told us a release date (July of this year). Between this and Ted Lasso, the summer TV of 2021 is shaping up to really, really be what I deserve out of life. Here‘s the trailer for Leverage. Here‘s the trailer for Ted Lasso. Great. Now we are all on the same page. Two articles about burnout: one here, one here. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is a tremendous writer on Black politics, and this profile of her is terrific. (link) Nadya Agrawal talks about what…
1 CommentLook, I did not expect to kick off Mansfield in May by performing a full-scale investigation into whether Jane Austen was or wasn’t making an anal sex joke in Mansfield Park. I am as surprised as you by this turn of events. As with so many things in the last year and a half, I am but a leaf blown wildly about by the winds of chance and circumstance. Here I was, innocent as a lamb, reading Mansfield Park in the car, wondering only about the extent to which Mary Crawford was wronged, looking not for anal sex jokes but…
1 CommentThe Hatening begiiiiiiiiiiiiiins! I dearly hope that with this Hatening, I have managed to talk Whiskey Jenny out of Hatening me to read Irish literature, because this is now two Irish books in a row that haven’t really worked for either of us. Star of the Sea is set on a famine ship, and the good thing I can say about it is that it made me really want an Upstairs/Downstairs style BBC series that takes place on board a ship. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, or download it directly to take with you…
Leave a CommentI am constantly endeavoring to get myself into mystery novels, after a lifetime of reading almost no mystery novels, and my results have been… mixed. Not because I’ve read mysteries that were my enemies, but more because I have a hard time, when I’ve picked up one mystery novel, remembering to go back and pick up another. But I am undeterred! If I keep trying, eventually I will alter my reading habits and then I will love mysteries. It worked with spinach and it’s going to work with mystery novels. Arsenic and Adobo was a perfect mystery to help me…
Leave a CommentWell, okay, due to time having no meaning, I admit that now some of these links are a little older, and that is just because time has no meaning and I forgot what alternate Fridays were. Also that it has been very rainy in my neck of the woods lately, which contributes to the feeling that we are living in a timeless placeless uncaring universe. Nevertheless, here are some links! Emma Southon is so great, and she has a new book out about murder in ancient Rome! Here is an excerpt! (link) Social-emotional learning can help kids relate to each…
Leave a CommentI have been threatening it for years, and now I’m going to do it! Long, long ago, when I was a college whippersnapper, I read Mansfield Park for a class and thought it was REALLY QUITE GOOD. Then some time passed, and everyone talked shit about Mansfield Park because Fanny’s a pain and Edmund’s a drip, and my vague memories calcified into the following: Mansfield Park is unfairly maligned (by the world); and The Crawfords are unfairly maligned (by Jane Austen) Well, 2021 is the year we’re going to find out the truth! Is Fanny as much of a pain as…
Leave a CommentWE ARE BAAAAAAAACK THE PODCAST IS REUNITEDDDDDDDD, not even this pandemic can keep us apaaaaaaaaaaart! It’s me and Whiskey Jenny, reunited to shoot the shit and discuss all the books we read in 2020 (all two of them). It’s magical! I love her so much! You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, or download it directly to take with you on the go! Episode 145 Things We Discussed If the Boot Fits, Rebekah Weatherspoon The King Must Die, Mary Renault Fearing the Black Body, Sabrina Strings Vanishing Falls, Poppy Gee The Midnight Bargain, CL Polk Sorcerer…
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