#yet another neil and jean parallel

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

"Patiently" awaiting for when Jean's narration switches from referring to himself as 'Jean' to 'Jean-Yves'

[karmacharmeleon18]

i agree 100% with your kevin analysis wow. like truly didnt Mind him from neil's perspective but from jeans that man is a monster. jean having been almost beaten to death only for kevin to BRING HIS GIRLFRIEND WHO SUCKS to jeans recovery room without asking was just another example of how he cares what jean can give him but will never ever see him as a whole person. which leads me into my next point, i cant forgive kevin for it.

🥺 Hello anon and thank you so much for this message ❤

That's exactly it: I can't forgive Kevin either.

So I get exasperated when the fandom insists that Jean has to forgive him. Or that he has already forgiven him.

They think they are friends when Jean wants to see Kevin dead.

First example that comes to mind is how they think Jean was seething because "Kevin brother-zoned him haha" and not because Kevin was 1) comparing Jean to Riko, 2) being an absolute hypocrite because in what world do you betray your brother like that? and 3) because Kevin was inadvertently drawing a parallel between himself and Jean: Jean is an older brother, but unlike Kevin he would die to get a chance to protect Elodie, so don't you dare say we are brothers, Kevin Day, when you truly don't know what it means to act like one, when you left me to die.

Jean was a child when he was shipped off by his parents and still he blames himself for not being there to protect Elodie.

What Kevin did was unforgivable.

But the fandom has already forgiven him. So Jean is the issue here.

😤😤😤

This is also why I hate when the narrative/Nora lets Kevin act all bossy, high and mighty with Jean. Dude, you betrayed him and left him to be tortured to death??? At least say an heartfelt sorry? But no. He's Kevin Day. You're supposed to feel lucky he's even talking to you.

And I get it. I truly do. Kevin was a victim, like Thea was a victim, like all Ravens, present and past, were victims. But that doesn't mean that they can't be held accountable for their actions and words.

Jean is held accountable all the damn time and he went through horrors Kevin can't even begin to imagine.

The one time he accidentally hit Laila he was made to apologize and told that such behavior is not tolerated with the Trojans.

The coaches push him all the time to get out of his Raven ways, to the point that Jean feels publicly humiliated during training, reprimanded like a dog in front of all the Trojans.

And when he does his best to stop using Raven tricks? He is too focused, too perfect, abnormal, the Trojans dehumanize him and call him a robot.

And on top of that, Kevin Day shows up and starts telling him what to do and say, while at the same time being a complete hypocrite about his own drinking problem and personal issues.

And you are so, so right about Kevin not even asking if Jean feels like seeing Thea.

As a matter of fact, Jean is rarely asked anything. He's just expected to accept any decision that the people around him make for him.

But hey, at least this time his lack of agency doesn't come with abuse, so it's fine, right?

Ggggrrrrrr 😤

And I don't even want to think about what Thea told him anymore. This woman he looked up to as a child, who knew he was being passed around by the adults around them and blames Jean for it. I can't.

It all feels so unfair, you know?

Some characters are constantly held accountable for their misbehaviors, while others never are.

Thea and Kevin think they're perfect and most of the world agrees, so if you have a problem with it, it's your own issue.

Remember when Seth said: "I'm sick of him getting everything he wants just because he's Kevin Day -- His life is not more important than mine just because he's more talented."?

Gods how I hate to agree with Seth Gordon on anything, yet here we are 😤

Sending Jean to USC... maybe this is Kevin's way of asking for forgiveness, but... he still has so much to gain from it, you know?

He's not "helping" Jean simply out of the goodness of his heart, or in repentance.

He's doing it because Jean is the best backliner and he should be Court. And Kevin is the Queen of the Court and he only wants to be surrounded by the best.

As you said: "he cares what Jean can give him but will never ever see him as a whole person."

Two birds with one stone: he can feel better with his conscience and he gets to be responsible for the best backliner in collegiate Exy having a prosperous career in the future, which he will directly benefit from if all goes according to plan and Jean makes Court.

Wonderful PR too lol and we all know how much that matters to Kevin, how much he values appearances and being seen as the best not only on the court, but off of it. He gets to be the hero in Jean's story.

I'm so glad Nora adjusted her writing of Cat and Laila (to an extent) in TGR to reflect what Jean actually deserves: space and compassion.

Not people that just see him as a broken thing that need to be pushed into being better.

Now that I think of it, it's another parallel to Kevin and Neil.

Kevin pushes the Foxes to be better for him, because he wants to win.

The Trojans push Jean to get better for themselves, not out of malice but because they're too uncomfortable with Jean's trauma and want him to get over it.

Meanwhile Neil pushes the Foxes to be better for themselves.

And Jeremy pushes Jean to get better for Jean's benefit, because Jean deserves to get better.

And this is why Kevin and the Trojans fail, but Neil and Jeremy succeed (and now Cat, Laila and Rhemann too).

Thank you so much for your message ❤

[marauders-bs]

kevin day is the sirius black of the aftg fandom but i fear some of you aren't ready for that conversation *essay incoming*

let me explain. sirius, at age fifteen, left his fourteen year old brother in a (likely physically and not just mentally) abusive household. he put himself above his brother, because he wouldn't have survived (mentally *or* physically) another year or even month in that place. in doing that, he left regulus and condemned him to life there. regulus likely grew to believe that he deserved it.

now, kevin. kevin left a 17 year old jean moreau at edgar allen, which was (and is) physically, mentally, physiologically, emotionally and sexually abusive. kevin put himself over someone who wasn't even an adult yet because if he had stayed, he would have died. in doing it, he condemned jean to life in that place. jean grew to believe that he deserved everything he was given.

this goes especially hard if you believe that kevin gave jean the chance to go with him. kevin was not at fault for leaving jean- he did what he had to do to survive, just like renee, andrew, aaron, and neil (and probably jeremy). jean is doing his best and healing.

this entire essay is to introduce you to the belief that the *only* difference between jean yves moreau and regulus arcturus black is that one found a good friend group full of people intent on helping him heal (jeremy, cat, laila) and one found people who understood him (barty, evan, narcissa). both lost biological siblings (sirius, elodie) and both lost *forever partners* (pandora, kevin).

kevin and sirius are intense parallels as well. on one hand, you have someone who managed to save their person, and one who didn't. both found *questionable* friend groups (marlene, james, peter, remus) (aaron, nicky, neil, andrew, robin) and both found parental figures after years with bad ones (wymack & abby, effie & monty).

also, if kevin is going to try and mend his relationship with jean while jean is trying not to get violent flashback from being in the same room as him, tgr is going to kill me from black brothers parallels alone.

thank you for coming to my ted talk. please ask me questions about this.

[justforbooks]

Maggie Smith, the prolific, multi-award-winning actor whose work ranged from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Harry Potter to Downton Abbey, has died aged 89.

The news was confirmed by her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens in a statement. They said: “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27 September.

“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.

“We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”

Smith’s gift for acid-tongued comedy was arguably the source of her greatest achievements: the waspish teacher Jean Brodie, for which she won an Oscar, prim period yarns such as A Room With a View and Gosford Park, and a series of collaborations on stage and screen with Alan Bennett including The Lady in the Van. “My career is chequered,” she told the Guardian in 2004. “I think I got pigeonholed in humour … If you do comedy, you kind of don’t count. Comedy is never considered the real thing.” However, Smith also excelled in non-comedic dramatic roles, performing opposite Laurence Olivier for the National Theatre, winning a best actress Bafta for The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and playing the title role in Ingmar Bergman’s 1970 production of Hedda Gabler.

Born in 1934, Smith grew up in Oxford and began acting at the city’s Playhouse theatre as a teenager. While appearing in a string of stage shows, including Bamber Gascoigne’s 1957 musical comedy Share My Lettuce opposite Kenneth Williams, Smith also made inroads on film, with her first substantial impact in the 1958 Seth Holt thriller Nowhere to Go, for which she was nominated for a best supporting actress Bafta. After starring in Peter Shaffer’s stage double bill The Private Ear and The Public Eye, Smith was invited by Olivier to join the nascent National Theatre company in 1962, for whom she appeared in a string of productions, including as Desdemona to Olivier’s Othello in his notorious blackface production in 1964. (Smith repeated the role in Olivier’s film version the following year, for which they were both Oscar-nominated.)

In 1969 she was cast in the lead role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the adaptation of the Muriel Spark novel about the Edinburgh schoolteacher with an admiration for Mussolini; Smith went on to win the best actress Oscar in 1970. Later the same year she starred in Ingmar Bergman’s production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for the National Theatre in London’s West End; the Evening Standard’s Milton Shulman described her as “haunt[ing] the stage like some giant portrait by Modigliani, her alabaster skin stretched tight with hidden anguish.” Another Oscar nomination for best actress came her way in 1973 for the Graham Greene adaptation Travels with My Aunt, and an Oscar win (for best supporting actress) in 1979 for California Suite, the Neil Simon-scripted anthology piece in which she played an Oscar-nominated film star.

Smith continued her successful parallel film and stage careers in the 1980s. She starred opposite Michael Palin in A Private Function, the wartime-set comedy about food rationing, co-scripted by Alan Bennett, and had a colourful supporting role as gossipy cousin Charlotte Bartlett in Merchant Ivory’s A Room With a View, for which she was nominated for yet another Oscar. She followed it up with The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, a character study in which Smith played the unmarried, frustrated woman of the title. On stage she played Virginia Woolf in Edna O’Brien’s 1980 play at the Stratford Festival theatre in Canada, and in 1987 starred as tour guide Lettice Douffet in Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage. She also reunited with Bennett for his Talking Heads series on both radio and TV, playing a vicar’s wife having an affair.

Film roles continued to roll in: she starred alongside Joan Plowright and Cher in Franco Zeffirelli’s loosely autobiographical Tea With Mussolini, a dowager countess in Robert Altman’s country-house murder mystery Gosford Park, and opposite Judi Dench in Ladies in Lavender, written and directed by Charles Dance. She also accepted the prominent role of Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series, appearing between 2001 and 2011 in every instalment apart from Deathly Hallows Part 1. Meanwhile she achieved arguably her most impactful TV role as the countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey, created by Gosford Park writer Julian Fellowes – reprising the role in two standalone cinema films, released in 2019 and 2022. Having played the role on stage in 1999, Smith enjoyed a late career triumph in The Lady in the Van, Alan Bennett’s memoir about the woman who lived on his driveway.

Smith was married twice: to fellow actor Robert Stephens between 1967 and 1975, and Beverley Cross between 1975 and his death in 1998.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[asinglemagpie]

The Golden Raven: Here Be Spoilers 2

Turns out I'm not quite done.

HOW is it that in BOTH second books of BOTH trilogies that horrible shit happens to Andrew?! (I have wholesome ideas about what happens when he's in surgery though, so yay for the headcanon fluff fuel.)

Rhemann punching Zane was BADASS - thank FUCK the guy wasn't a student any more because that would have been a career ender.

Rhemann and Adi ;; I love them. I love Rhemann's floppy hat. I love that Jean gets the realisation that love IS possible, a relationship that LASTS is possible. That it's not out of his grasp. Even if he does keep thinking it is.

Also I keep thinking about this post and can you imagine how much they must have thought about it? When I forgot the date I so wanted them to go there and be part of it, but it's 3 years behind where we are in canon but... I mean... I still want something like that for them. They deserve it ;;

The kiss that should have been. Pissed it didn't happen, but also kind of glad? Neither of them are in the right head space to deal with it yet.

Hey, if Neil can't get Jeremy's paperwork from his mum, do you think LAILA'S DAD could?!

We need a memorial for Bark Bark. Maybe they took the picture that was in the kitchen on a phone and they can re-print it, put a black sash on the frame?

I really want to know what Andrew said to Renee in the interview. I mean shit went DOWN after that and I kind of forgot about this but I'm reliving he book backwards thanks to Nin's posts and I'm screaming mentally again XDD

Wymack thought last year was bad. He's probably having wistful feelings about how well last year went. Poor Wymack ;;

Hands up who hates that Kevin was really painfully right about how it's easier to be straight in sports? Hands up who hates that Kevin probably says that because of what happened to Jeremy and not what was done to Jean?

(Hands up who still loves Kevin even though his unlovable side made so many appearances in this, because we like complicated and faceted characters, and Kevin had a weird fucking life *raises hand*)

(Also holy backstory, he used to spend SO MUCH TIME with Tetsuji because Kayleigh fucking trusted him and he probably had her killed to keep Kevin. BLOOD. BOILING)

OKAY SO I theorised that Jeremy's banquet backstory had something to do with sex going wrong - being caught was a factor. Gay orgy on coke was not where my brain went. I'm still processing that there was a DRUNK GAY EXY ORGY EVERY BANQUET. Like... WHAT THE FUCK? XDD

Conners needs to die. Rhemann can bury his body in the vegetable patch. No one will ever know. Jeremy's pumpkins will be HUGE next year.

William is amazing and I would die for him. I'm also not opposed to killing for him... just putting it out there...

The pottery class where the fandom proved we know our boys because Jean was better than Jeremy who wanted to take it, exactly as prophesied. I need so much more of this class in book 3 btw.

ALSO THE ANONYMOUS TIP IS CLEARLY BRYSON! CAN WE YELL ABOUT THIS A BIT PLEASE? It's the only way he can hit back at being humiliated like that.

Had to pause and do Duolingo. Realised that Jean is literally the reason I'm re-learning French. Damn he's just THAT GOOD that not only fictional characters are falling over themselves to learn French for him.

Jean's wishing Kevin was dead so that he could follow him still hurts. I literally try to not think about it, hence it's this far down in the second rant but... I really can't blame Jean. As he said, Kevin slit his throat on the way out, and never tried to get him out KNOWING what would be happening to him. His anger is justified. His heartbreak is justified. And honestly, his desperate need for it to be over to the point of wishing another person harm just so they could break a promise... I get it. I get it. I hate that I get it.

Honestly Jean and Andrew have so many parallels at this point, but you can also see the wildly different directions they went in too.

The "Checkmate" line honestly made me need to stop reading and just absorb the moment. And try not to laugh. Because DAMN Kevin. Andrew would have been so proud of you if he heard that.

Jeremy hearing from people outside of his usual bubble that he's Court worthy was... I'm so scared what's gonna happen to him ;; To me he was always Olympic team with Kevin, Andrew, Neil, and Jean ;;

Jean having to have trans people explained to him and then he couldn't give a shit as long as it didn't affect their games. It's the most dismissive acceptance ever lmao.

The fact that Ravens have been killed in the past for not living up to expectations was a shock. I feel like it shouldn't have been, look at the shit that happened to Jean and Neil, but it still fucked me up for a moment. Like fuuuuuuuuuuuck it's so much worse than we even thought?!

Does Jean trust Neil or does he HAVE TO trust him? I hate that I can't quite decide which it is.

OKAY I DON'T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THAT JEAN'S MOTHER MURDERED AN ENTIRE FAMILY TO PROVE A POINT! Like FUCK Neil went through some shit but Nathan never did THAT!

[youdontknowhowtodiequietly]

@aurisartblog (it won't let me tag you??? for some reason???) i saw you asking for elaboration in the comments but idk how long my response would be and i despise typing under comments (it's just so squished - don't ask) so here ya go!

TW! Spoilers for TGR (I will only be talking about things I picked up in this book because I did not annotate TSC), mentions of SA, because, of course there is, it's these two.

To start off with: Jean is so aggressively loyal.

BUT

His aggression and violence is controlled. Idk if you saw the post someone made about Andrew never being out of control, even when others think he is, and I 100% stand by that and it's the same thing with Jean. We all saw how controlled he has been with everything - the game, practices, when ppl piss him off in general - but when it comes time where that aggression is needed to protect his people, it comes out in a measured dose that doesn't intend to seriously harm, but to get someone to back down. Like how a dog will give you a nip, or a cat will swat at you, to get you to back off? Yeah, like that.

Which leads me onto the dog thing.

Now, we're all aware of how Andrew is referred to as Kevin's guard dog, or something of the likes, with the leash and other metaphors. Well, Jean's is not so outwardly named, but he does display dog-like behaviours - especially an obedient one, even if that obedience has been abused into him.

For example, on page 13/14 (Kindle): "As usual, Jean finished first and went to wait on the bench near Jeremy’s locker." Tell me that is not a dog waiting obediently for its "owner" (not saying at all that Jeremy owns him, he does not, but Kevin did not own Andrew, so...) And going back to the whole control thing? If Jeremy said "bite", Jean would. It is Jeremy (and Rhemann, and his contract, but mainly Jeremy and Jean's fear of disappointing him) that keeps Jean at bay (most of the time - technically with Bryson Jeremy didn't say "go" but he also didn't put up much of a protest. I'm sure if Jeremy had been more confident and less afraid of his brother, he could have stopped Jean. But also, sometimes a guard dog will bite even if it isn't told to if it's owner(s) are in danger, and Jeremy and Laila were).

Another quote, which kind of made me really think "hmm, this guy is kind of a parallel to Andrew!" is one quote on page 335: "It makes you more interesting" after Jeremy insults the Bobcats. And quote on page 226 "Stop looking at me like that." (though I didn't realise how Andrew-like it was until I started writing this) are both almost exact copies of what Andrew has said - I think Andrew says "Interesting" to Neil once in the first trilogy? But I haven't read the books in yonks.

Also, just, the poker faces (though Jean's is less "I'm bored" and more, "I could not care less about anything going on"), how they're both so accepting yet filled with rage at what has happened to them (e.g., page 350 "I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Then why did he want to scream until his throat bled?").

The fact that they are both victims of rape, yet believe that they would never get a true prosecution for their abusers (I'm sure that's why Andrew never spoke out, not just because he was trying to move on, but he knows how low the rates are of rapists getting prosecuted for women, and he no doubt made the connection that it would be even less between two men, even if it was CSA), and Jean doesn't really express this but I'm sure it's a thought.

And I don't doubt Andrew struggled to come to terms with his sexuality after everything that happened to him, and though it isn't the same as what happened to Jean, his struggle with his own attraction is similar.

If we were to get a POV of Andrew, and I were to read TSC again, I would probably be able to make more comparisons.

I hope you enjoyed anyways, and feel free to add to this if you wanna (anyone, btw, not just the person I tagged and am replying to) and sorry if it's a little incoherent, most of my posts usually are lmao.

everyone talks about the parallels between jean and neil, the misplaced forever partners, but no one talks about the parallels between jean and andrew

[suchagiantnerd]

48 Books, 1 Year

I was just two books shy of my annual goal of 50! You can blame the combination of my adorable newborn, who refused to nap anywhere except on me, and Hallmark Christmas movie season, during which I abandon books for chaste kisses between 30-somethings who behave like tweens at places called the Mistletoe Inn (which are really in Almonte, Ontario). 

Without further ado, as Zuma from Paw Patrol says, “Let’s dive in!”

1. Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes / Nathan H. Lents

We have too many bones! We have to rely too much on our diet for survival! We suffer from too many cognitive biases! Reading about our design flaws was kind of interesting, but the best part of this book were the few pages toward the end about the possibility of alien life. Specifically this quote: "...some current estimates predict that the universe harbours around seventy-five million civilizations." WHAT?! This possibility more than anything else I've ever heard or read gives me a better idea of how infinite the universe really is.

2. The Fiery Cross / Diana Gabaldon

Compared to the first four books in the Outlander series, this fifth book is a real snooze. The characters are becoming more and more unlikeable. They're so self-centered and unaware of their privilege in the time and place they're living. Gabaldon's depictions of the Mohawk tribe and other First Nations characters (which I'm reading through her character's opinions of things) are pretty racist. The enslaved people at one character's plantation are also described as being well taken care of and I just.... can't. I think this is the end of my affair with Outlander.

3. Educated / Tara Westover

This memoir was a wild ride. Tara Westover grew up in a survivalist, ultra-religious family in rural Idaho. She didn’t go to school and was often mislead about the outside world by her father. She and her siblings were also routinely put in physical danger working in their father’s junkyard as their lives were “in god’s hands”, and when they were inevitably injured, they weren’t taken to the hospital or a doctor, but left to be treated by their healer mother. Thanks to her sheer intelligence and determination (and some support from her older brother), Tara goes to university and shares with us the culture shock of straddling two very different worlds. My non-fiction book club LOVED this read, we talked about it for a long, long time.

4. Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for St. Brigid’s Day / Carl F. Neal

Continuing with my witchy education, I learned all about the first sabbat of the new year, Imbolc.

5. Super Sad True Love Story / Gary Shteyngart

This in-the-very-near-future dystopian novel got my heart racing during a few exciting moments, but overall, I couldn’t immerse myself fully because of the MISOGYNY. I think the author might not like women and the things women like (or the things he thinks they like?) In this near future, all the dudes are into finance or are media celeb wannabes, while all the women work in high-end retail. And onion-skin jeans are the new trend for women - they are essentially see-through. Gary….we don’t…want that? We don’t even want low-rise jeans to come back.

6. The Wanderers / Meg Howrey

Helen, Yoshi and Sergei are the three astronauts selected by a for-profit space exploration company to man the world’s first mission to Mars. But before they get the green light, they have to endure a 17-month simulation. In addition to getting insight into the simulation from all three astronauts via rotating narrators, we also hear from the astronauts’ family members and other employees monitoring the sim. At times tense, at times thoughtful, this book is an incisive read about what makes explorers willing to leave behind everything they love the most in the world.

7. Zone One / Colson Whitehead

The zombie apocalypse has already happened, and Mark is one of the survivors working to secure and clean up Zone One, an area of Manhattan. During his hours and hours of boring shifts populated by a few harrowing minutes here and there, the reader is privy to Mark’s memories of the apocalypse itself and how he eventually wound up on this work crew. Mark is a pretty likeable, yet average guy rather than the standard zombie genre heroes, and as a result, his experiences also feel like a more plausible reality than those of the genre.

8. Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi

One of my favourite reads of the year, this novel is the definition of “sweeping epic”. The story starts off with two half-sisters (who don’t even know about each other’s existence) living in 18th-century Ghana. One sister marries a white man and stays in Ghana, living a life of privilege, while the other is sold into slavery and taken to America on a slave ship. This gigantic split in the family tree kicks off two parallel and vastly different narratives spanning EIGHT generations, ending with two 20-somethings in the present day. I remain in awe of Gyasi’s talent, and was enthralled throughout the entire book.

9. Sweetbitter / Stephanie Danler

Tess moves to New York City right out of school (and seemingly has no ties to her previous life - this bothered me, I wanted to know more about her past) and immediately lands a job at a beloved (though a little tired) fancy restaurant. Seemingly loosely based on Danler’s own experiences as a server, I got a real feel for the insular, incestuous, chaotic life in “the industry”. Tess navigates tensions between the kitchen and the front of house, falls for the resident bad-boy bartender, and positions herself as the mentee of the older and more glamorous head server, who may not be everything she seems. This is a juicy coming-of-age novel.

10. The Autobiography of Gucci Mane / Gucci Mane and Neil Martinez-Belkin

Gucci Mane is one of Atlanta’s hottest musicians, having helped bring trap music to the mainstream. I’d never heard of him until I read this book because I’m white and old! But not knowing him didn’t make this read any less interesting. In between wild facts (if you don’t get your music into the Atlanta strip clubs, your music isn’t making it out of Atlanta) and wilder escapades (Gucci holing himself up in his studio, armed to the teeth, in a fit of paranoia one night) Gucci Mane paints on honest picture of a determined, talented artist fighting to break free of a cycle of systemic racism and poverty.

11. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer / Michelle McNamara

McNamara was a journalist and true crime enthusiast who took it upon herself to try and solve the mystery of the Golden State Killer’s identity. Amazingly, her interest in this case also sparked other people’s interest in looking back at it, eventually leading to the arrest of the killer (though tragically, McNamara died a few months before the arrest and would never know how her obsession helped to capture him). This is a modern true crime classic and a riveting read.

12. A Great Reckoning / Louise Penny

The 12th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero starting a new job teaching cadets at Quebec’s police academy. Of course, someone is murdered, and Gamache and his team work to dig the rot out of the institution, uncovering a killer in the process.

13. Any Man / Amber Tamblyn

Yes, this novel is by THAT Amber Tamblyn, star of “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants”! Anyway, this book is a tad bit darker, and follows five men who’ve been victimized by the female serial rapist, who calls herself Maude. Going into this read I though that it might be some sort of revenge fantasy, but dudes, not to worry - we really feel awful for the male victims and see them in all their complexity. Perhaps, if more men read this book, they might better understand the trauma female and non-binary victims go through? That would require men to read books by women though. Guys? GUYS???

14. Ostara: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for the Spring Equinox / Kerri Connor

Yet another witchy read providing more information about this Spring sabbat. 

15. Scarborough / Catherine Hernandez

This novel takes place in OUR Scarborough! Following the lives of a number of residents (adults and children alike), the plot centres around the families attending an Ontario Early Years program as well as the program facilitator. Hernandez looks at the ways poverty, mental illness, addiction, race, and homophobia intersect within this very multicultural neighbourhood. It’s very sad, but there are also many sweet and caring moments between the children and within each of the families.

16. The Glitch / Elisabeth Cohen

Shelley Stone (kind of a fictional Sheryl Sandberg type) is the CEO of Conch, a successful Silicon Valley company. Like many of these over-the-top real-life tech execs, Shelley has a wild schedule full of business meetings, exercise, networking and parenting, leaving her almost no time to rest. While on an overseas business trip, she meets a younger woman also named Shelley Stone, who may or may not be her younger self. Is Shelley losing it? This is a dark comedy poking fun at tech start-up culture and the lie that we can have it all.

17. The Thirteenth Tale / Diane Setterfield

This is my kind of book! A young and inexperienced bookworm is handpicked to write the biography of an aging famous author, Vida Wynter. Summoned to her sprawling country home around Christmastime, the biographer is absolutely enthralled by Vida’s tales of a crumbling gothic estate and an eccentric family left too long to their own whims. Looking for a dark, twisty fairytale? This read’s for you.

18. Love & Misadventure / Lang Leav

Leav’s book of poems looked appealing, but for me, her collection fell short. I felt like I was reading a teenager’s poetry notebook (which I’m not criticizing, I love that teen girls write poetry, and surprise, surprise - so did I - but I’m too old for this kind of writing now).

19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows / Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hooo boy, my book club loved this one! Hoping to get a job more aligned with her literary interests, Nikki, the 20-something daughter of Indian immigrants to Britain, takes a job teaching writing at the community centre in London’s biggest Punjabi neighbourhood. The students are all older Punjabi women who don’t have much to do and because of their “widow” status have been somewhat sidelined within their community. Without anyone around to censor or judge them, the widows start sharing their own erotic fantasies with each other, each tale wilder than the last. As Nikki gets to know them better, she gains some direction in life and starts a romance of her own. (It should be noted that in addition to this lovely plot, there is a sub plot revolving around a possible honour killing in the community. For me, the juxtaposition of these two plots was odd, but not odd enough that it ruined the book.)

20. Beltane: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for May Day / Melanie Marquis

Beltane marks the start of the summer season in the witches’ year, and I learned all about how to ring it in, WITCH STYLE.

21. Summer of Salt / Katrina Leno

This book is essentially Practical Magic for teens, with a queer protagonist. All that to say, it’s enjoyable and sweet and a win for #RepresentationMatters, but it wasn’t a surprising or fresh story.

22. Too Like the Lightning / Ada Palmer

This is the first in the Terra Ignota quartet of novels, which is (I think) speculative fiction with maybe a touch of fantasy and a touch of sci-fi and a touch of theology and certainly a lot of philosophical ruminating too. I both really enjoyed it and felt so stupid while reading it. As a lifelong bookworm who doesn’t shy away from difficult reads, I almost never feel stupid while reading, but this book got me. The world building is next level and as soon as you think you’ve found your footing, Palmer pulls the rug out from under you and you’re left both stunned and excited about her latest plot twist. Interested in finding out what a future society grouped into ‘nations’ by interests and passions (instead of geographical borders and ethnicity) might be like? Palmer takes a hearty stab at it here.

23. The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster / Sarah Krasnostein

When Sarah Krasnostein met Sandra Pankhurst, she knew she had to write her biography (or something like it - this book is part biography, part love letter, part reckoning). And rightly so, as Sandra has led quite a life. She grew up ostracized within her own home by her immediate family, married and had children very young, came out as a trans woman and begin living as her authentic self (but abandoning her own young family in the process), took to sex work and lived through a vicious assault, married again, and started up her own successful company cleaning uncleanable spaces - the apartments of hoarders, the houses of recluses, the condos in which people ended their own lives. Sandra is the definition of resilience, but all her traumas (both the things people have done to her and the things she’s done to others) have left their mark, as Krasnostein discovers as she delicately probes the recesses of Sandra’s brain.

24. Becoming / Michelle Obama

My favourite things about any memoir from an ultra-famous person are the random facts that surprise you along the way. In this book, it was learning that all American presidents travel with a supply of their blood type in the event of an assassination attempt. I mean OF COURSE they would, but that had never occurred to me. I also appreciated Michelle opening up about her fertility struggles, the difficult decision to put her career on hold to support Barack’s dreams, and the challenge of living in the spotlight with two young children that you hope to keep down to earth. Overall, I think Michelle was as candid as someone in her position can be at this point in her life.

25 and 26. Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle / Ada Palmer

I decided to challenge myself and stick with Palmer’s challenging Terra Ignota series, also reading the second and third instalments (I think the fourth is due to be released this year). I don’t know what to say, other than the world-building continues to be incredible and this futuristic society is on the bring of something entirely new.

27. Even Vampires Get the Blues / Kate MacAlister

This novel wins for “cheesiest read of the year”. When a gorgeous half-elf detective (you read that right) meets a centuries-old sexy Scottish vampire, sparks fly! Oh yeah, and they’re looking for some ancient thing in between having sex.

28. A Case of Exploding Mangoes / Mohammed Hanif

A piece of historical fiction based on the real-life suspicious plane crash in 1988 that killed many of Pakistan’s top military brass, this novel lays out many possible culprits (including a crow that ate too many mangoes). It’s a dark comedy taking aim at the paranoia of dictators and the boredom and bureaucracy of the military (and Bin Laden makes a cameo at a party).

29. Salvage the Bones / Jesmyn Ward

This novel takes place in the steaming hot days before Hurricane Katrina hits the Mississippi coast. The air is still and stifling and Esch’s life in the small town of Bois Sauvage feels even more stifled. Esch is 14 and pregnant and hasn’t told anyone yet. Her father is a heavy drinker and her three brothers are busy with their own problems. But as the storm approaches, the family circles around each other in preparation for the storm. This is a jarring and moving read made more visceral by the fact that the author herself survived Katrina. It’s also an occasionally violent book, and there are particularly long passages about dog-fighting (a hobby of one of the brothers). The dog lovers in my book club found it hard to get through, consider this your warning!

30. Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay / Phoebe Robinson

A collection of essays in the new style aka writing multiple pages on a topic as though you were texting your best friend about it (#ImFineWithThisNewStyleByTheWay #Accessible), Robinson discusses love, friendship, being a Black woman in Hollywood, being plus-ish-size in Hollywood, and Julia Roberts teaching her how to swim (and guys, Julia IS as nice in real life as we’d all hoped she was!) Who is Robinson? Comedy fans will likely know her already, but I only knew her as one of the stars of the Netflix film Ibiza (which I enjoyed). This is a fun, easy read!

31. Midsummer: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Litha / Deborah Blake

After reading this book, I charged my crystals under the midsummer sun!

32. Fingersmith / Sarah Waters

So many twists! So many turns! So many hidden motives and long-held secrets! Think Oliver Twist meets Parasite meets Lost! (Full disclosure, I haven’t seen Parasite yet, I’m just going off all the chatter about it). Sue is a con artist orphan in old-timey London. When the mysterious “Gentleman” arrives at her makeshift family’s flat with a proposal for the con of all cons, Sue is quickly thrust into a role as the servant for another young woman, Maud, living alone with her eccentric uncle in a country estate. As Sue settles into her act, the lines between what she’s pretending at and what she’s really feeling start to blur, and nothing is quite what it seems. This book is JUICY!

33. Rest Play Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) / Deborah MacNamara, PhD

I read approximately one parenting book a year, and this was this year’s winner. As my eldest approached her third birthday, we started seeing bigger and bigger emotions and I wasn’t sure how to handle them respectfully and gently. This book gave me a general roadmap for acknowledging her feelings, sitting through them with her, and the concept of “collecting” your child to prevent tantrums from happening or to help calm them down afterward. I’ll be using this approach for the next few years!

34. Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes and Lore for Lammas / Melanie Marquis

And with this read, I’ve now read about the entire witch’s year. SO MOTE IT BE.

35. In Cold Blood / Truman Capote

How had I not read this until now? This true-crime account that kicked off the modern genre was rich in detail, compassionate to the victims, and dug deep into the psyche of the killers. The descriptions of the midwest countryside and the changing seasons also reminded me of Keith Morrison’s voiceovers on Dateline. Is Capote his inspiration?

36. I’m Afraid of Men / Vivek Shraya

A quick, short set of musings from trans musician and writer Shraya still packs an emotional punch. She writes about love and loss, toxic masculinity, breaking free of gender norms, and what it’s like to exist as a trans woman.

37. The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You / Elaine N. Aron, PhD

Having long thought I might be a highly sensitive person (lots of us are!), I decided to learn more about how to better cope with stressful situations when I don’t have enough alone time or when things are too loud or when I get rattled by having too much to do any of the other myriad things that shift me into panic mode. Though some of the advice is a bit too new-agey for me (talking to your inner child, etc), some of it was practical and useful.

38. Swamplandia! / Karen Russell

The family-run alligator wrestling theme park, Swamplandia, is swimming in debt and about to close. The widowed father leaves the everglades for the mainland in a last-ditch attempt to drum up some money, leaving the three children to fend for themselves. A dark coming-of-age tale that blends magic realism, a ghost story, the absurd and a dangerous boat trip to the centre of the swamplands, this novel examines a fractured family mourning its matriarch in different ways.

39. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground / Alicia Elliott

This is a beautiful collection of personal essays brimming with vulnerability, passion, and fury. Elliott, the daughter of a Haudenosaunee father and a white mother, shares her experiences growing up poor in a family struggling with mental illness, addiction and racism. Topics touch on food scarcity, a never-ending battle with lice, parenthood and the importance of hearing from traditionally marginalized voices in literature. 

40. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay / Elena Ferrante

The third novel in Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet sees Elena and Lila move from their early twenties into their thirties and deal with a riot of issues - growing careers, changing political beliefs, the challenges of motherhood and romantic relationships, and existing as strong-willed, intelligent women in 1960s and 70s Italy. I’ll definitely finish the series soon.

41. Half-Blood Blues / Esi Edugyan

A small group of American and German jazz musicians working on a record find themselves holed up in Paris as the Germans begin their occupation in WW2. Hiero, the youngest and most talented member of the group, goes out one morning for milk and is arrested by the Germans, never to be heard from again. Fifty years later, the surviving members of the band go to Berlin for the opening night of a documentary about the jazz scene from that era, and soon find themselves on a road trip through the European countryside to find out what really became of Hiero all those years ago. Edugyan’s novel is a piercing examination of jealousy, ambition, friendship, race and guilt. And features a cameo by Louis Armstrong!

42. A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming / Kerri Rawson

So Brad and I had just finished watching season 2 of Mindhunter, and as I browse through a neighbourhood little library, I spot this book and the serial killer in question is the BTK Killer! Naturally, I had to read it. What I didn’t realize is that this is actually a Christian book, so Rawson does write a lot about struggling with her belief in God and finding her way back to Him, etc. But there are also chapters more fitting with the true crime and memoir genres that I equally enjoyed and was creeped out by.

43. The Night Ocean / Paul La Farge

This is another book that made me feel somewhat stupid as a reader. I just know there are details or tidbits that completely went over my head that would likely enrich a better reader’s experience. In broad strokes, the novel is about a failed marriage between a psychiatrist and a writer who became dangerously obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and the rumours that swirled around him and his social circle. The writer’s obsession takes him away from his marriage and everything else, and eventually it looks like he ends his own life. The psychiatrist is doubtful (no body was found) and she starts to follow him down the same rabbit hole. At times tense, at times funny, at times sad, I enjoyed the supposed world of Lovecraft and his fans and peers, but again, I’m sure there are deeper musings here that I couldn’t reach.

44. Glass Houses / Louise Penny

The 13th novel in Penny’s Inspector Gamache mystery series sees our hero taking big risks to fight the opioid crisis in Quebec. He and his team focus on catching the big crime boss smuggling drugs across the border from Vermont, endangering his beloved town of Three Pines in the process. 

45. The Bone Houses / Emily Lloyd-Jones

My Halloween read for the year, this dark fairytale of a YA novel was perfect for the season. Since her parents died, Ryn has taken over the family business - grave digging - to support herself and her siblings. As the gravedigger, she knows better than most that due to an old curse, the dead in the forest surrounding her village don’t always stay dead. But as more of the forest dead start appearing (and acting more violently than usual), Ryn and an unexpected companion (yes, a charming young man cause there’s got to be a romance!) travel to the heart of the forest to put a stop to the curse once and for all.

46. The Witches Are Coming / Lindy West

Another blazing hot set of essays from my favourite funny feminist take on Trump, abortion rights, #MeToo, and more importantly Adam Sandler and Dateline. As always, Lindy, please be my best friend?

47. Know My Name / Chanel Miller

This memoir is HEAVY but so, so needed. Recently, Chanel Miller decided to come forward publicly and share that she was the victim of Brock Turner’s sexual assault. She got the courage to do so after she posted her blistering and beautiful victim impact statement on social media and it went viral. Miller’s memoir is a must-read, highlighting the incredible and awful lengths victims have to go to to see any modicum of justice brought against their attackers. Miller dealt with professional ineptitude from police and legal professionals, victim-blaming, victim-shaming, depression and anxiety, the inability to hold down a job, and still managed to come out the other side of this trial intact. And in the midst of all the horror, she writes beautifully about her support system - her family, boyfriend and friends - and about the millions of strangers around the world who saw themselves in her experience.

48. Christmas Ghost Stories: A Collection of Winter Tales / Mark Onspaugh

Ghosts AND Christmas? Yes please! This quirky collection features a wide array of festively spooky tales. You want the ghost of Anne Boleyn trapped in a Christmas ornament? You got it! What about the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future drinking together in a bar? Yup, that’s here too! 

__

So, what were my top picks of the year, the books that stuck with me the most? In no particular order:

Educated

Homegoing

The Wanderers

Know My Name

Scarborough

[elene78-blog]

Jean and Neil aren't good friends. I mean, they probably are by Nora's standards, but it's not a conventional friendship, or that's how I see it. It's another matter that the fandom, in order to "categorize" it, calls it friendship, but their relationship is somewhat more complex.

What you saw in the original trilogy was two people meeting under the worst possible circumstances, two people with very strong parallels who would have had a close relationship if things had turned out differently. Indeed, in this trilogy, Jean and Neil weren't friends, and in TSC, they aren't either. Of course, in this new book, we can see the beginning of a relationship of respect and appreciation for each other—distant and distant, but there, and that's logical considering they're in very similar situations.

It's not that this relationship was born out of nowhere, no. It's that in the new trilogy, events unfold that lead these two to become closer.

However, don't think they're each other's best friends, far from it. Neil and Jean only interact twice in TSC (the last time, they interact in a very significant way, yes), and not at all in TGR, but they "understand" each other and are relatively important to each other.

The closest relationship to what they have could be the relationship between Kevin and Andrew in its early days, but in my opinion, it's funnier (Jean's insults to Neil are hilarious) and perhaps somewhat more reciprocal (referring to the fact that Jean also developed a protective role toward Neil in The Nest, and in TGR, there are some indications that Jean would also develop that protective role if the opportunity arose again. I'm not saying they're closer than Andrew and Kevin, which I don't believe).

Jean says he hates Neil and insults him every chance he gets, but in TGR, we see him caring for him from a distance when something comes up that could negatively affect Neil. Neil seems indifferent to Jean, but whenever he can do something to help him, he does it without being asked. It comes from within him to do it because he understands that he could have been Jean if Mary had made other choices. Jean also supported him at The Nest (as best she could), so Neil respects and appreciates Jean.

They're not exactly "friends," but they are comrades who are developing a strange kind of friendship.

Good friends? No, not on our terms, at least.

But I do think you might be right not to read this new trilogy (at least not yet), because you're thinking about Neil and his relationship with Jean, and you don't find it believable based on the first trilogy. This makes me think you see this new trilogy as a continuation and not as a separate story, so you might be disappointed reading it, thinking of it as a complement to the first.

This story is Jean's, not Neil's. Whether Neil and Jean develop a friendship or not is irrelevant, because Jean's story will focus on many other new characters she'll interact with, not Neil. This is something anyone who wants to read this trilogy and enjoy it should understand before starting it. If you think this is a continuation of the Foxes, you won't enjoy it. It's Jean's story, without the Foxes, even though they appear from time to time.

My advice: don't read TSC and TGR unless you simply want to know Jean's story and how he begins his new life with the Trojans. Don't think that Neil, Kevin, or Andrew might appear in it, because if not, you're dooming it before you even begin. Think of it as a story in the same world, but not a continuation of it. If you do that, you'll most likely like it, since it maintains the essence of the original trilogy (in my case, I like it even more than the first trilogy).

Is this a safe space to say i dont want to read tsc bc im not the biggest supporter of the idea that Jean and Neil are acctually good friends?

[dotty17h35294-blog]

The Magic From Prayers.

The basic idea of Dig Bala is that planets will definitely do better assisting specific slants in the graph than others. People with the exact same eyesight, the exact same objective, individuals that desire to sort of, practically fly to the moon. Leaving behind sophisticated technology on the Moon for any individual along with the ability to recover this. Certainly never heard the one about the rabbit in the moon however I concur that this is incredibly calming to merely relax as well as admire the moon. Suddenly one protruding gas-lit window cracked heaven twilight like an upward's- eye light; and also Valentin stopped an immediate just before a little bit of garish sweetstuff shop. If you've viewed the motion picture Moon starring Sam Rockwell, you recognize that the area soil or even wrap rock known as regolith may likewise be an important source of helium3. The Scorpio Full Moon is actually offering our conscious awareness the importance from stabilizing our male web as well as women power. Put parallel, practically 3 systems containing Pluto and also its five known moons would certainly suit in between the Planet as well as its moon. The Belize Blue Hole is actually literally a hole in the sea encircled with coral that was created during the course of the Ice Age..

That is actually made on the lineage from the setting of the sunlight, moon and planets, time, place, different astrology facets, and also delicate angles like the moment of your and your companion's start. When nodules synchronize with brand-new and complete moon when the Sunlight, Planet, as well as Moon straighten in 3 measurements, lunar orbit inclination also figures out eclipses; shadows traverse. Early human beings believed that the world was actually established after a substantial sapphire, which repainted the sky blue with its own reflection. Our experts have a harmful Mercury-Uranus placement, and also the Moon is actually between Pluto-Mars, in Capricorn. They won't blink a lot when there is a brilliant full moon or even if there is actually way too much fabricated light.

In case you need to put on the gemstone, you can put on 3 to 6 carat weights Blue sapphire. Computing Easter Sunday for Religious needs the understanding of the moon pattern. Unmanned test tour of Orion interplanetary spacecraft, which will pass the Moon on a cost-free return velocity. Place an X on one side from the sphere (this exemplifies the skin of the moon you would certainly see coming from earth). Roses are red violets are actually blue i possess 5 fingers the center one for you thus leave me alone go away closed the frig up and have a nice day!!!

Right, the moon graced the skies on the very same time as the private solution for Neil Armstrong, the first guy on the moon, that died final weekend break, aged 82. . They made use of heaven color coming from pansies as component of their study and production of heaven increased.

As your Moon Backyard expands, silver and grey vegetation plants need to surround the edges from the sidewalk. First off when you enter into the keyword download Seafarer Moon incidents, lots of internet sites look the screen within a moment of your time. Yet another significantly preferred lunation amount (merely named the Lunation Number), launched by Jean Meeus, specifies lunation 0 as beginning on the first brand-new moon of 2000 (this occurred at approximately 18:14 UTC, January 6, 2000).